DQ1 Melissa Ball

I would say one of my personal strengths regarding professional presentations is I am a people person and would say I have fairly good communication skills. Before I was a nurse I was a waitress/manager for about 16 years so I would say that helped me a little in my communication skills. But one of my weakness is when I get nervous I kind of ramble my words and they don’t make sense. “Presentation skills are crucial to almost every aspect of academic/business life, from meetings, interviews and conferences to trade shows and job fairs” (Dolan, 2017). A method for improvement could be identifying what type of speaker I am for example, an avoider, resister, accepter, or seeker (Dolan, 2017). A method for improvement would be for me to work on my delivery method and to assess my audience. By working on the delivery delivery method and assessing my audience would help me keep from getting nervous and then start to ramble when presenting in the more formal setting.

Reference

Robert Dolan, Effective presentation skills, FEMS Microbiology Letters, Volume 364, Issue 24, December 2017, fnx235, https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnx235

DQ1

Panna Panchal

I did not do many presentations in the state, not because I couldn’t but because of my accent and lack of academic speaking. I usually don’t get easily anxious to speak in public or with peers. However, I will feel a little nervous. According to Wellstead et al., Delivering an oral presentation at conferences and meetings can seem daunting, but, if delivered effectively, it can be an invaluable opportunity to highlight the presentation in front of peers and receive feedback on the project (Wellstead et al., 2017). I am always worried if I mispronounce any words because I have been there before when people laughed and thought it was funny. That is my weakness. My strength is knowledge, years of experience as a nurse taught me so much when I mostly have an answer for every question for skilled related nursing, and if I don’t know something, I always make sure to find out right answer and get back to the person.

I read my PowerPoint repeatedly, and I will present in front of my family and let them ask me questions and discuss how I can improve myself to be more perfect. Having rehearsed a few times, I will be more confident. I will recite words that might have more accent, so I speak out without an accent. I will keep eye contact with my viewers, give pauses, keep my enthusiasm high and be funny to keep my audience engaged during the presentation. I will improve better after repeating before going to the actual presentation.

Reference.

Wellstead, G., Whitehurst, K., Gundogan, B., & Agha, R. (2017). How to deliver an oral presentation. International journal of surgery. Oncology, 2(6), e25. https://doi.org/10.1097/IJ9.000000000000002

DQ1

Kayla Machingo

It has been a while since I have stood in front of an audience and presented a PowerPoint Presentation. When I was in my senior year of high school and freshman year of college, I used to complete presentations for the city regarding providing safe travels for students in the evening through an organization called Safe Rides. At this point in time, I felt like I was great at standing in front of a large audience and providing information. Overall, I would say that my personal strength with professional presentations is that I am a people person with a bubbly attitude. Therefore, chatting with the audience and keeping them entertained does not scare me nor do I find it particularly difficult. I think my biggest weakness is being nervous about other people’s thoughts towards to my presentation. To improve this fear, it is important for me to adjust the environment to my liking (get comfortable in my space), get to know the audience more personally by greeting them, working on deep breathing exercises and avoid covering too much information in a short time frame (Kim, 2021). It is important for me to work on these skills as it will make the presentation more smooth, more personable, and more appealing. I will be working on these skills this week prior to my presentation.

Reference

Kim, L. (2021). 20 Ways to improve your presentation skills. https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/11/19/how-to-improve-presentation-skills

DQ2

Virginia Gallardo

From past experiences, I can tell that sustaining a change can be difficult. As much as we understand and value all of the benefits of Evidence Based-Practice (EBP), sustaining EBP is not straightforward, and many barriers inhibit individuals from consistently implementing EBP, including inadequate skills and knowledge (Sharplin et al., 2019). A common barrier in sustaining EBP includes insufficient time for teaching new practices to the staff. This is a barrier I have witnessed with previous changes. Project leaders will provide education once and never revisit the topic. This leaves staff with unanswered questions or doubts about the change, leading to staff either not implementing or sustaining the change. Having multimodal communication channels is also essential such as bulletin board flyers, e-mails, and staff meeting discussions (Sharon et al., 2020). Project leaders can use these channels to disseminate information on the change proposal and ensure sustainability over time.

Other barriers include a lack of resources or organizational support. Some practice changes will require financial support, which can come from various stakeholders like unit directors. Unit leaders not only provide financial support but also reinforce goals, influence change, and monitor clinical outcomes. Over time staff can forget about the change and may revert to previous practice, and thus it is essential to have champions of change who will support the project. Charge nurses were designated champions of change with one of our more recent projects. Their role was to assess whether or not the staff was adopting the change in practice. When they identified that nurses were not adopting the change, they were responsible for providing education on why the practice is necessary.

References

Sharplin, G., Adelson, P., Kennedy, K., Williams, N., Hewlett, R., Wood, J., Bonner, R., Dabars, E., & Eckert, M. (2019). Establishing and Sustaining a Culture of Evidence-Based Practice: An Evaluation of Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing the Best Practice Spotlight Organization Program in the Australian Healthcare Context. Healthcare (2227-9032), 7(4), 142. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.3390/healthcare7040142

Tucker, S. J., Gallagher-Ford, L., & Jang, E. (2020). EBP 2.0: Implementing and Sustaining Change: The Evidence-Based Practice and Research Fellowship Program. American Journal of Nursing, 120(2), 44. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000654320.04083.d