Reflect on your different experiences in this course, from learning new tools to having to think critically to learning how to accept feedback. Discuss which aspects were most challenging and most rewarding. Based on your experience, what doctoral strategies helped you navigate these new experiences successfully (or could help you in the future)? How could you use these strategies as a leader at a local level or within the broader health care system to advocate for change?
Reflecting on my experience with this course is the fact that it appears that I have taken on too much in my plate. I am finishing up my school nursing certificate when I joined this program. I feel that I have wasted enough time in my life so that I need to start and just do it especially knowing that I am only taking one class at a time. Life and other things get in the way. I entered this program because it has always been my desire to reach the pinnacle of learning and knowledge of any career that I choose, not for title but for knowledge. It may not have been as stressful if I did not have life to contend with such as personal life, family life, spiritual life and work life.
One of the greatest challenges I have and still have with this course, is the challenge of understanding the navigations with technology. Go there, go here, click on this, click on that. I understand things but I learn slow, life is so fast paced and apparently learning that if you do not get it quickly, you are left behind so you are continuously struggling to catch up. I find that that has happened to me with learning computer technology. With this program, I believe that it was quite confusing and still is, the various information and sites that we had to click into and navigate to get to information and because of the pressure of lack of time and the due dates coupled with our other life plans, and our fear of starting something new, it made it difficult to understand. I hope that I will understand it better as I settle into this program. If and when I pass this class.
My second challenge with this course is the instructions given. No offense to Dr. Etheridge because it is not her fault, but the faculty that has set this program. The instructions are quite voluminous and not so easy to understand and there are several places you have to go to get information. Maybe that is the way it works with other school’s programs. I do not know, but must it be so confusing. I know that I wanted to drop out that first week and many of my classmates too, but we kept at it with a lot of stress. I wish that the faculty would make the instructions a little simpler especially since this is the first class. I was talking to a friend and she said that this is why she prefers in person classes. It appears that online students are inundated with so much information that we have to figure out for ourselves. Though, I tried to reach out to Dr. Etheridge and she explained them, thank you but because of my lack of time, I did not always reach out to her on time and I felt self-conscious to keep asking her questions which is the problem that students have. We do not want to keep asking for clarification because it makes us look, one stupid and two, we feel like we are bothering the professor.
My third challenge that is based on technology is my difficulty with finding articles especially recent articles. I could not find recent articles within the five years limit. Most times, when I find the best article, it is several years old. I was so frustrated one time that I finally called the Librarian and the young man that helped me also had difficulty finding recent articles on the topic I was using. The librarian taught me one or two things on how to find articles and I have used it but it does not always work but I need more training, to learn the proper skills needed on how to find articles. I don’t even mind paying for the training but the other issue is my lack of time. I cannot add another stressor to my plate at this time in my life.
All the new navigation tools that I have learned have been helpful but I need to understand how to maneuver them well. I am still learning how to think critically in terms of research and the DPI projects. How to pick the right topic that does not involve starting new research and how to pick the right question, learning PICOT-D is new to me. Also, finding the literature and learning to differentiate the levels of evidence of different articles is great but I still need to understand it better. This doctoral learning process is profitable because no knowledge is a waste. It will help me in future as a leader at a local level to be able to identify issues and
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