Clinical Reflective Analysis

THE IMPORTANCE OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE This essay will discuss the Importance of Reflective Practice within the health & social care. It will look at why using frameworks models such as (Gibbs 1988) can attribute to professional development and how new important recommendations on Reflection and Reflective Practice from Governing Bodies such as the NMC were influenced following the (Francis Report 2012). “Reflection is the personal exploration of your own thoughts and actions; it is about thinking things over, which will often reveal anxieties, errors, and weakness as well as strengths and successes” (Boyd and Fales 1983, p19). Reflective practice is an important act in which people, recall their experience's, absorb

This assignment is a reflective account on communicating with a patient who cannot communicate verbally. To remain confidential I will call the patient, Patient A. I’m going to discuss the importance of non-verbal communication within a healthcare setting. Patient A was a 63 year old lady suffering from MND which resulted in her losing her speech.

I sincerely believe that I accomplished my goals this week. I realized that I served 14 patients by combining the ability of knowledge, my attitude for excellence that I have consistently defeat the odds to become the very best Nurse practitioner; I can become. This clinical experience brings forth many opportunities and achievements. The most important experience this week; I had the ability to identify as primary healthcare provider a high risk need for the patient to be transferred to the Hospital for further evaluation without delay; due to complaints of “leg cold from the knee down to the feet”, which my evaluation was based on evidence practice knowledge of compassion and skill with the autonomy to practice, diagnose, and treat patients

I entered the La Clery Wellness Centre with the primary goal of putting what I have learnt so far in my schooling to practice and mastering these skills, mainly measuring vital signs. I also wanted to go about observing the duties of the health aide and getting acquainted with the staff and setting itself. However, my week required me doing more than I initially thought, in addition to learning additional skills. I did manage to go about achieving the aforementioned goals, especially that of measuring vitals. I not only performed the task in a primary health care setting but also in the home setting where I was ecstatic knowing I was competent enough to do them properly and know the rationale behind the process and the values obtained.

My experience in mental health clinical was very different from any other clinical I had before. In a mental health clinical setting, I am not only treating client’s mental illnesses, I am also treating their medical problems such as COPD, diabetes, chronic renal failure, etc. Therefore, it is important to prepare for the unexpected events. In this mental health clinical, I learned that the importance of checking on my clients and making sure that they are doing fine by performing a quick head-to toes assessment at the beginning of my shift. I had also learned that client’s mental health illness had a huge impact on their current medical illness.

Describe strategies you gained from the course for improving outcomes of care and patient safety in the setting in which you are engaged in. Provide examples and rationale.

In recent years, reflection and reflective practice have become well-known term with in the health care arena. They are words that have been debated and discussed with in the health care setting (Tony and Sue 2006). Reflective practice is essential for nurses, as nurses are responsible for providing care to the best of their ability to patients and their families (NMC, 2008). Reid (1993) states reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice. Johns (1995) notes that reflection enables practitioners to assess, understand and learn through their experience. Reflective practice, therefore, offers nurses an opportunity to review their decisions and

The purpose of this journal is to reflect on my experience and skills gained during my clinical placement at Ben Taub Hospital. On my first clinical day, I was excited and nervous at the same time. My first placement was in the PREOP/PACU area. I was assigned to help a patient who had been in the PACU area going on 2 days. Normally, once the patient comes from surgery they are only in the PACU area for a short period of time before they are discharged home or given a bed in another area of the hospital. This particular patient still had not received an assignment for a bed. The physicians would make their rounds to come check on him daily. The patient was a 28-year-old Hispanic male, non-English speaking, he had a hemicolectomy. He had a NG tube, urinary Foley catheter, and a wound vac. My preceptor had just clocked in and she needed to check on the patient’s vitals and notes from the previous nurse. Once she introduced me to the patient and explained while I was there, she then asked me to check his vitals. (Vital signs indicate the body’s ability to regulate body temperature, maintain blood flow, and oxygenate body tissues. Vital signs are important indicators of a client’s overall health status (Hogan, 2014). I froze for a quick second. I have practiced taking vitals numerous of times and I knew I could do it correctly. I started with the temperature first, when I was quickly corrected on a major mistake I had made by my preceptor. I HAD FORGOT TO WASH MY HANDS and PUT

My reflective clinical practice experience was based on my eight weeks placement in an acute mental health ward in a hospital. I was not sure of what to expect because I have never worked or placed in an acute ward and this was my second placement. Before starting my placement, I visited the ward and was inducted around the ward. This gave me a bit of confidence and reassurance about working in an acute ward.

This week during clinical I was placed with a very independent patient who currently was in good state of mind and relevant health. My patient this week suffered from numerous heart problems and was recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Throughout the day while I was at clinical my patient had yet to receive the news from his health provider of their recent findings but he was so happy because he finally was going to be discharged and sent home from the hospital. From the interactions I had with him we developed a working relationship. He told me how his boss from work name was Celeste and that he met his wife at age 22 and has been with her since. He even called me his good luck charm at the end of the day and wished me luck with my

Today, Jessica, Laura, and I met with Holly to discuss concerns about clinical projects and hours. This meeting went well; we will be working on our projects, in clinical only. I also observed Holly teach 3- first grade classrooms, and 1- 2nd grade class room about nutrition. This was a great experience, and I learned a lot of great techniques for teaching. I was also able to interact with the kids, and they were a lot of fun. As well as, I had an hour- where I worked on my PSE project, and developed a plan for organizing a health fair that would occur sometime in March- I am very excited about this. Jessica and I also met with Katie- the foster teen program coordinator, that is overseeing our nutrition classes that we will be teaching 02/14

My clinical instructor and I went to my patient’s room to administer her medication. Before we gave Isosorbide mononitrate we checked her vital sign and BP was 119/ 76 and at 4am BP was 89/46, thus my instructor said we should not give this medication because the BP was low and if we give this medication it is going lower her BP and it is very dangerous for patient since she is getting dialysis. Thus, we held the medication and we notified the primary care provider and the patient’s nurse.

My area of interest is “Hypertension in the African American Male population”. I want to study the incidence in different communities of African American males in the U.S. This will help me to identify risk factors in these communities that could be modified. NIH offers grants to conduct such research. After an in-depth review of the literature, I will seek advice from colleagues and senior researchers. Having a good idea is very important to start with. I will talk to the NIH program official and follow their guidelines in the NIH web page. I will remember the review criteria while writing the grant and follow the instructions carefully.

During our return demonstration, we all felt like we needed to look to our instructor for guidance in what we should do. The reason for this was because we all lacked the confidence to feel like we knew what we were doing. If I could do it again, I would have liked to have been more knowledgeable about the scenario so that I could be more confident.

Clinical practicum has provided a valuable study opportunity to me.When I took care of a living person in wards,I could apply the skills which are learnt from indoor lessons in school and books.Also,I could achieve more knowledge outside textbooks.However,I find that there is a difference between the real situation and theory.In ward,nurses have to be multitasking and need to manage several patients,time is precious to them.Nurses have to make an effort to save time from different ways.To give an example,in the ward I worked in this clinical practicum,nurses connected the syringe to the end of tube and administered drug to a patient with nasogastric tube by giving pressure to pump drug solution down the tube.Thus ,the procedure finished in a few seconds.I learnt this method from them and applied it in my practice.However,I was stopped by the supervisor teacher during one of my practise.She told us that it was wrong to administer drug by using pressure.She then asked me for the right method.I was shocked in that time because I learnt this way from the