Critical Reflection In Nursing

Throughout my time on the Mother Baby Care Unit, I have faced many instances in which I have been able to reflect on both my patients and the care that I was providing them. One situation in particular that I found myself critically reflecting upon involved a new mother who was feeling slightly stressed about being discharged as her newborn son would not be going home with her. For confidentiality reasons, this patient will be given the pseudonym of Kayla for the remainder of this reflection.

The nursing practise has continually evolved and can be described as autonomous due to the significant involvement of nurses in patient care. This then necessitates critical reflection as a way to continually develop and improve the nursing practise. The Gibbs' model, one of the reflection models, assists nurses in complying to the codes and guidelines of nursing practice. For example, developing action plans, evaluating patient outcomes, and thinking critically. This essay will describe an event involving nurses and explain the feelings it evoked. It will also provide an evaluation of the positives and negatives, analysis and enhancement of learning, and an action plan.

It was found that the nurses had insufficient recording of wound care and the staff were not monitoring the wounds consistently or keeping Mr Selir’s GP up to date on his condition. After this incident, the nursing home introduced new staff, systems and processes to improve the quality of care to residents. I felt frustrated and disturbed as coming from overseas, my family background has always taught us to respect and look after our elderly therefore back in our country we don’t believe in nursing homes. According to Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia [NMBA] 2016, health professionals ought to provide safe, appropriate and responsive quality nursing practice.

Reflection is a process of exploring and examining ourselves, our perspectives, attributes, experiences and actions / interactions. It helps us gain insight and see how to move forward (Nursing Times 2018). I believe reflection is particularly important when it comes to Nursing, as medicine is constantly changing/ improving and us ourselves medical professionals must adapt with the changes in medicine. I find that reflection is extremely useful in doing this as we can look over procedures or experiences that we have had, how that made us feel, whether we would change anything, then in the future we can see the changes that may have been made, whether this has changed our feelings and opinions on medical practice.

Skin integrity is an important concept that’s nurses assess on their patients. A key skill in nursing practice is to frequently assess the skin for possible breakdown or decreased skin integrity. Skin assessments should be conducted thoroughly once a shift and frequently reassessed for any signs of change. Skin discrepancies may be the first sign of an underlying issue. Early detection of any breakdown can help to implement interventions sooner. Unfortunately, unless there is a major skin discrepancy, skin issues can easily get overlooked, specifically in documentation and report. The focus of this paper is to research new skin integrity assessments to improve documentation effect and accuracy, resulting in decreased prevalence of skin breakdown in hospitalized patients. Topics discussed include reviewing current practices and new skin assessment techniques that decrease the prevalence of skin breakdown and pressure ulcers.

The following essay is a reflective account on an event that I, a student nurse encountered whilst on my second clinical placement in my first year of study. The event took place in a Fountain Nursing Home in Granite City. I have chosen to give thought to the event described in this essay as I feel that it highlights the need for nurses to have effective communication skills especially when treating patients that are suffering with a mental illness. Upon arriving to the Nursing home for the second time on Thursday November 14,2013; assigned the same patient as before. On meeting my patient the first thing I noticed myself doing without even thinking about it was giving her a visual inspection. Before nursing school I never really looked at

In this case study I will use Gibbs (1988) model of reflection to write a personal account of an abdominal examination carried out in general practice under the supervision of my mentor, utilising the skills taught during the module thus far.

The objective of this reflection is to explore and reflect upon a situation from a clinical placement on an orthopedic unit. The incident showed that I did not provide safe, timely and competent care for my patient when the oxygen saturation was low. Furthermore, this reflection will include a description of the incident, and I will conclude with explaining what I have learned from the experience and how it will change my future actions.

Starting the Registered Nurse (RN) to Bachelorette of Science in Nursing (BSN) program at Jacksonville University in June 2015 was a simple transition for me. I had graduated an Associates Degree in Nursing (ADN) program in December 2014 and became a licensed RN in January 2015. I had just gotten hired for my first nursing position the month prior to the start of class and had not yet started working. I was very much still in student mode. While this makes it a bit easier to learn and process information in a classroom setting, I had no real world experience to help guide me. Through the knowledge I have gained as a student at Jacksonville University I have become a competent and well-rounded nurse. I am able to quickly problem solve and utilize critical thinking to identify and rectify issues. I have even put together, and will be presenting, and presentation about nursing practice for staff members at the facility where I work.

This essay will look at what reflection in nursing looks like, why we use reflection as a tool, what are the outcomes of reflecting, how we reflect effectively and what skills are needed. Then, using an experience within practice, a reflective model will be used to analyse a critical incident relating to consent. In accordance with the confidentiality measure within ‘The code’ (NMC, 2015) and to abide by the Data Protection Act 1998, no information will be provided which could allude to the identity of anyone within the critical incident, thus pseudonyms will be used where appropriate.

Next semester, I’m excited to have more free time and not be distracted by cheerleading. I plan to focus on my studies, and not socialize as much as I did the past two semesters. However, I plan to volunteer a few hours at the local hospital to gain experience to put on my graduate school application. Also, the new Burdick hall extension is opening up next semester, and I’ll get a chance to use the new state of the art gym. As an exercise lover, I’m hoping to put some of my free time into exercising and getting myself healthier.

I have taken several actions to improve my tracheostomy care skills and subsequently time management skills without having to rely on first hand in hospital experience. I conducted a literature review on the George Brown Library website (EBSCO search engine) for learning strategies that could help nursing students improve their clinical skills outside of the clinical setting. The specific actions I took to advance my nursing practice were:

The Royal College of Nursing defines reflection as the process of thinking deeply with the purpose of understanding (RCN 2013). Reflection is a way people recollect, think and evaluate their knowledge which is a vital part of learning. (Boud et al cited in Royal College of Nursing). Reflection allows us to be conscious of any form of discrimination. It enables learning from mistakes and prevents future occurrence (RCN 2013). In addition, Jasper et al (2013) looks at reflection as a way professionals learn through various experiences in their role. They also went further to say, for development to happen in our roles as professionals, there is the need for continuous process of building our knowledge.

Throughout my years as a Gambian native from West Africa, I witness the lack of health services across the country as an adolescent. From there on, I decided to pursue a profession in the medical field. In 2014, I made the choice to apply to the nursing program at Towson University. I vividly remember rushing to the mailbox to open the letter, that would have read “congratulations, you have been accepted”, but for me, it was the opposite of what I had anticipated. A friend of mine informed me that the size of the letter indicated if I was accepted or not. Reading I was denied broke me into piece lead me to pursue another degree. Constantly, I thought to myself, what I would do with my future and how my parents will feel. It was already difficult to pay out-of-pocket every semester and work part-time while being a full-time student. Nursing is my gateway to accomplish other endeavors that would guide me to becoming a leader. My plan in life is to earn my Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and also serve as a leader within the health community. After a few months, I assure myself that everything happens for a reason.

The following reflection demonstrates my awareness for my own cultural influences. Through the cultural lenses of a student nurse and a tennis member. They have impacted the way I view others and is a guidance to my bicultural professional health care relationship.