Nursing Reflection

In today’s world, where globalization and the internet has shrunken spaces and reduced distances, it is only natural that we come across people of different cultures living in harmony. As a nurse practitioner, one experiences several circumstances where the patients are from different cultural backgrounds, varied religious beliefs and also from the other part of the world. While a nursing practitioner has a challenge of treating every patient with utmost care and concern, there are times where our strengths and beliefs come in between our duty (Maier-Lorentz, 2008). A nurse practitioner might have to face situations where they might not have any control over, and still should show their best face. This is where their values, beliefs and behaviors might help them to achieve the impossible.

Critical reflection is vital to develop evidence based practice for safe and quality approaches to professional nursing practice. Nursing professionals should critically reflect on events to identify what health professionals might do to improve their practice and reduce the risk of a similar error. Reflective practice can help to learn from their mistakes, be empowered and most importantly to deliver best possible care to patient as nurses must work closely with their patients to develop a therapeutic relationship. Critical reflection is a valuable skill to ensure patient centred care. This practice promotes personal development by enhancing students’ self-awareness, their sense of community, and their sense of their own capacities for

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.

This essay will discuss a clinical skill in which I have become competent in practicing as a student nurse.

This objective will affect my future nursing practice because conducting physical head to toe assessments and obtaining vital signs is a different process when working with paediatric patients rather than adults. It is crucial to note any changes that I can catch throughout my assessments, and vital signs since paediatric patients might not be able to communicate with me if they feel any changes in their health. By understanding the anatomy and physiology, the developmental stages of children, and obtaining accurate vital signs and assessments, it will increase my knowledge, skill, ad judgment to successfully complete and distinguish any abnormities and changes during my assessments. Also, knowing the developmental stages and distraction therapy method techniques can help me provide thorough examinations and find ways to help my patients cope if they are feeling anxious and scared.

Question #1: Identify the communication skills or actions the nurse used in this nurse client interaction

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

The Nurse in Scenario one made it clear to the patient that she was busy and had other patients to tend to. Effective communication is not demonstrated here because the Nurse has not respected or placed herself at the service of the client (NMBA, 2008). As observed in the video the Nurse speaks quickly and interrupts the patient.

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.

Evaluation is the third stage of Gibbs model of reflection and requires me to state what was good and bad about the event. While reflecting back on the incident I felt that there was one thing which I could have dealt with differently and also some aspects which demonstrated good practice. On the first hand, this incident made me realised that I was part of the team and that I was also involved in positioning and preparing the patient prior to surgery, therefore I had a responsibility to find out from the patient if he had any concerns. On the other hand, I should have communicated to the patient, explaining what I was about to do maybe he would have had the opportunity to raise his problem with the shoulder before lifting his arm. The Health Professions Council (HPC 2008) clearly states that it is the responsibility of an operating department practitioner to ensure that effective communication occurs when delivering patient care. In addition, Psychologist Helmreich, R. (2000) said, `better communication’ is being the most useful way of reducing errors.

This essay is a discussion about my experience during the first two weeks of my clinical placement in an older adult ward. My experiences will be demonstrated using the various nursing skills acquired thus far. The reflective account used is adopted from the work of Driscoll (2007) which splits the essay into three segments namely a) what happened, b) so what, (what were my feelings, what was good and what was wrong about the experience, c) now what, (if I find myself in that same situation what would I do differently).

The purpose of this essay is to reflect on a challenging situation I experienced during clinical practice as a student nurse. The essay will discuss my thoughts and feelings surrounding the situation and analyse the coping strategies I used in managing the situation, linking to relevant theory throughout in order to provide evidence for practice. The essay will also consider person-centred care and whether this was delivered to the patient. To conclude, the essay will discuss what I have learnt from the experience and how this experience will improve my future

A surgical nurse is responsible for monitoring and ensuring quality healthcare for a patient following surgery. Assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, and outcome evaluation are inherent in the post operative nurse’s role with the aim of a successful recovery for the patient. The appropriate provision of care is integral for prevention of complications that can arise from the anaesthesia or the surgical procedure. Whilst complications are common at least half of all complications are preventable (Haynes et al., 2009). The foundations of Mrs Hilton’s nursing plan are to ensure that any post surgery complications are circumvented. My role as Mrs Hilton’s surgical nurse will involve coupling my knowledge and the professional

My observation day started in the preoperative unit of the hospital where I met with the pre-op nurse. During this time I was able to introduce myself to the patient and had her consent to allow me observe her surgery. My patient was a 39Y female who was to undergo a robotic assist hysterectomy. Her past medical history includes constant, abnormal vaginal bleeding, polyps and severe cramping. These are the factors that contributed to her having the hysterectomy. My patient also noted that this is the last resort in her treatment for her symptoms. In this case, my patient was undergoing palliative surgery, or having surgery to alleviate symptoms without curing a specific disease. Her past medical history also includes gastroesophageal reflux disease, bilateral chondromalacia patella joint pain, and depressive disorder. These factors