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How will you use evidence-based practice in your future nursing role?

l plan on using evidence-based practice in my future role as a tool to ensure that the interventions I engage with result in the best outcomes for patients. I know that many practices evolve with emerging technologies and updated references, so I will be a proponent of staying up-to-date with the research.

Reflect on a current event (choose one) and describe how it has shaped your educational experience.

The most impactful current event is the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. I cannot turn away from the decision and cannot forget the conversations we had during Reproductive Health in which we reflected on poor maternal health outcomes for pregnant people of color. We brainstormed all the different ways the health care system and insurance and capitalism and racism directly result in more deaths of pregnant people and infants. The thread of this conversation must be brought into reproductive care, and how the states most affected by the legal changes are states that have many folks of color. (Sun, 2022) It seems as though the courts, and subsequently health care systems, will be turning their backs on people of color yet again. (Kheyfets & Amutah-Onukagha, 2022)

This stark reality impacts my education in that it showcases how important patient advocacy becomes in a system that oppresses particular groups. It becomes more important to make sure I am working within a system or organization that is addressing health equity and providing care to all.

How does your unique experience with our current public health crises (COVID-19, systemic injustices) enhance your nursing leadership role and promotion of health equity?

Working as a nurse tech at a large public hospital during several Covid surges has impacted every aspect of my future as a nurse. I worked long hours in PPE providing care to people in isolation. I worked during understaffed shifts where I would be the only assistant on a floor with 28 beds. I would do my best to help patients who needed more attention and who deserved better care. I would apologize, but would never offer an empty promise that their experience would improve. I wasn’t sure, and still am not sure, when things would get better when every resource is stretched to its limit.

I have so much admiration for the folks who work on inpatient floors, who keep showing up fueled by their desire to help people in need. They are working through staffing and supply conditions that would frustrate the most seasoned health care professionals. And some still find the energy to advocate for change; better staffing, better nurse-to-patient ratios, hazard pay, and improved public health initiatives are all different kinds of advocacy I have witnessed.

Seeing advocacy in action has contextualized the theory I am learning in my nursing education. I am watching in awe as nurses step into the role of change agents in every facet of health care, and that advocacy is not just limited to patients. Beyond advocating for better supplies or more transparency in health care, nurses are also advocating for their own safety, for the integrity of their license, and for all hospital staff being stretched too thin by the ongoing health crisis. Health equity efforts must include the people working at every level of health care facilities, from the people who launder the linens to the executives writing policy.