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Essay / The importance of professional development in nursing...
Nursing students often check skills, critical thinking fundamentals, and attributes that facilitate the transition from the student role to the arena professional. Professional development is individualized and varies between each student. To develop professional skills as a nurse, clinical experience in the real-world work setting helps nursing students acquire the instruments necessary for success. “Active participation in educational, service, and scholarship opportunities can help prepare you to face new roles and challenges in the employment environment and in the broader nursing and health care” (Yoder-Wise., 2015, p. 556). Practices that occur when a nursing student participates in the clinic. Wound care is a supervised activity. The nursing instructor ensures proper technique to reduce the risk of student error by supervising wound care and witnessing wound assessment. Simple dressing changes may be performed unsupervised at the discretion of the nursing instructor; this can only occur once the student nurse has demonstrated competent knowledge and technique. Peripherally inserted central venous catheter (PICC) dressing changes are supervised by the nursing instructor and should never be performed unsupervised as it is a sterile procedure and proper technique is essential to prevent the introduction of pathogens into the patient. Licensed professional nurses do not need supervision to change the PICC line dressing; it is a difference between the role of the student and that of the professional. Insertion of a nasogastric (NG) tube is a procedure that must be performed under the supervision of the nurse instructor. If the placement of the NG tube is incorrect, it can trigger a potentially life-threatening problem, especially if the NG tube is inserted into the lung rather than the stomach. Proper technique and placement should be supervised by the instructor, although a portable chest x-ray and confirmatory report from the radiologist should confirm proper placement. In the professional nursing role, insertion of an NG tube is not supervised, but placement must still be confirmed by an x-ray and