Nurse ePortfolio

Reflections

Welcome to my ePortfolio. I have been a Registered Nurse for over 12 years and have always used a paper copy of my work history and education completion (AKA: paper resume) when applying for a new position. I have often felt it to be a meager offering of my experience and knowledge. As I am in my last semester of a Bachelor’s of Science degree in nursing (BSN), I have been pondering how adding those three letters to my resume will impact my job prospects. The ePortfolio seems to be an excellent way to evidence the work I have accomplished while a BSN student at Old Dominion University. I will be curating papers and projects from previous semesters to prove that I have achieved the eight core competencies required for this degree for my exit course this semester. I will be placing these, along with work history and community activity, in my ePortfolio shell.

I just deleted my Facebook account (shocker), for various reasons, and, as this was my only social media contact, I feel that my online presence is… Nil. I do have inactive LinkedIn and Indeed profiles that included a resume only, but I did not have a good grasp of how best to utilize these sites. I look forward to seeing were Comm 305 and Wix leads me!

In regards to a balanced work-family-school-church-exercise life, I would say it is better than this time last year, but not balanced, in my opinion. I have cut back my hours and have more available time to read to my daughter, without the stress of the papers due, reading to be accomplished, deadlines, or another 12+ hour shift the next day. I still have all of those responsibilities (as well as dinner, laundry, grocery shopping, etc), but now I know that I have a little more time to accomplish all of those tasks rather than decide which items I would skimp on or (ahem) skip altogether. I do not dream of my nurse life intersecting with my personal life. I work very hard when I am at work, and, quite honestly, I need to leave work at work.(Though that is wishful thinking as the stress of the previous shift often wakes me in the middle of the night). I have been told I just need to "toughen up". I know that I just need to work a different nursing angle; my Wix ePortfolio may be the key to that angle.