Soak Up Knowledge Like a Sponge
You will learn something new almost every day of your career. Look for opportunities to keep learning. Even procedures you have now done many hundreds of times can be learning situations if you have an opportunity to assist or observe another nurse. Everyone will developed his own style and process for procedures. What you learn can even be a “how not to do that” situation. Nonetheless, this can be as effective a learning experience as learning something new.
Subscribe to nursing journals and search the Internet for informative sites. Read everything that you can about subjects you feel weak in. If you work on a specialty unit, subscribe to listservs and other e-mail discussion groups or chat rooms for nurses who share your interests and specialty. Join nursing organizations and look for local chapters to attend events and seminars.
Take the opportunity to explore other aspects of nursing. What credentials do you need and what kind of prior experience is necessary? Subscribe to your local newspaper and keep up to date on community issues. These can impact health care in your area and can provide you with valuable teaching materials for your patients.
Listen to a news program every day whether it is on the radio or television. Stay current with political climates and issues that affect your community and the world. Have an understanding of what stimulates and affects your patients' world. Be a responsible citizen of your community. Know what's going on. Keep up-to-date with health care issues in the news and know who and what is effecting changes.
