Assignment: “Your past experience, assumptions, and hopes for your future career will influence what you contribute to and gain from this course. Describe any nursing specialties you are interested in, what sparks that interest, and what you would like to learn more about that specialty. Describe your assumptions about evidence-based practice and what informs those assumptions. Reflect on how you will apply what you learn in this course to your other courses (classroom or clinical) and how this learning will help you in future practice.”

There are many nursing specialties that currently pique my interest. I am more drawn towards specialties that are involved with caring for children. I have a soft spot for little ones and would enjoy possibly going into either pediatrics or maternity style nursing in the future. In these specialties, I would like to learn more about the different techniques and styles that are used with children rather than adults. For example, forms of distraction that can be provided when giving a vaccine to a child. This might be expressed in teachings of pediatric nursing but wouldn’t necessarily be used in an adult health class.

My knowledge about evidence-based practice (EBP) is that it is a form of research that is used in creating a knowledge that can later be used on in a professional practice. My assumption about this practice is that it is an ever-going process that doesn’t exactly end. There will always be ongoing research about medications proving their safety and quality, or potential changes in how our medical teams provide their care. This process is what keeps our medical system improving.

I will apply what I learn about EBP in this class by acknowledging that there is proper reasoning behind hospital policies in my clinical settings. When reviewing policies/codes, I will remember that everything that I am being instructed to do by the medical settings are through the background knowledge of EBP. This will help me understand that there is an importance to complying with these strict guidelines to provide adequate care to my patients.