Reflective Practice in Oncology Nursing

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.

Each hospital or clinic has their own policies and procedures in place to protect employees who administer chemotherapy. Since some nurses give chemotherapy to patients regularly, it’s important to always follow these procedures and know why they are set in place. According Polovich and Martin (2011), chemotherapy exposure by nurses has been linked to short and long term health effects,

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.

In 2010, Elshamy, El-Hadidi, El-Roby, & Fouda have completed a study to determine the health hazards exposed to chemotherapy drugs among nurses, identify potential risk factors that may predispose nurses to chemotherapy hazards; and evaluate the availability and us of protective measures in clinical practice. Based on the research, abortions, infertility, premature labor, and developmental and behavioral abnormalities among the children of the nurses are the most common adverse effects of chemotherapy to the nurses administering chemotherapy. Soft tissue injuries were also reported from spills and splashes. Urine samples of the nurses were mutagenic which could cause genetic changes to their off springs. Furthermore, the study stated that risky

own mortality while at the same time engaging in a fight for life. To a

As you may know, patients diagnosed with cancer undergo a treatment called “chemotherapy”. As Saunders defines in Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, chemotherapy is “The treatment of illness by chemical means; that is, by medication. The term was first applied to the treatment of infectious diseases, but it now is used to include treatment of mental illness and cancer with drugs”

The program is a modular taught postgraduate course for nurses used on the fields of oncology. The overall aim is to encourage proactive problem solving approaches and a reflective approach to oncology practice, producing nurses who are well equipped with the highly refined intellectual, scientific and clinical skills necessary for leadership careers in twenty-first century oncology. The individual modules are each designed to provide detailed and distinct skills, together with advanced knowledge in a particular aspect of oncology.

As higher standards expected are from the public and higher patient safety demands are expected from health boards, therefore, there is a need for a way of measuring standards of practice which can be achieved through active thinking in a clinical environment brought about by critical reflection (Rolfe, Jasper & Freshwater 2011). Reflection has become such a key component in the role of a nurse that the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have seen it fit to include it in their professional code of conduct the Code: Professional Standards of Practice and Behaviour for Nurses and Midwives, hereafter referred to as the Code (Nursing & Midwifery Council [NMC], 2015). With reflection being a vital skill for nurses to continue their professional development (Parrish & Crookes, 2013), an analysis of what it means to reflect within nursing is needed by all who intend to enter the profession to ensure its effective use is applied.

I alongside with other radiation therapy students were privileged to hear Carlas’ story from a patient point of view. Her journey through being treated for breast cancer. I could feel a strong sense of conviction in her words. She stayed strong and did not waver when speaking. I was shocked yet amazed at her confidence to tell it so clearly. It was my first time receiving insight from a radiation therapist. This paper will explore the feelings I experienced during and after this time, followed by reflective practice and key characteristics as a health care professional.

Cancer is among one of the most deadly diseases along with diabetes to set foot on this planet. Breast cancer is the most common for women and has accounted for more than 190,000 diagnoses in the year of 2009 alone (Susan, 2009). Treatment advances have been taking into action and further research has been done to minimize the total amount of patients in treatment. Even then, Cost of treatment has been a factor to some patients because those seeking medical attention are not aware of the expenses up front. While bladder cancer has become increasingly more expensive, is has reached from four billion $USD and now estimated to about five billion by 2020 (2014). Minor setbacks have been present when dealing with radiation therapy (RT) and chemotherapy (CT). Radiation toxicities have been common with RT, therefore, patients experience some sort of symptoms. Treatment objection highly depends on the area of the tumor as well as the stage. According to Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences (2012) Living with side effects from cancer treatment – a challenge to target information. “Chemotherapy for breast cancer or colorectal cancer influences nutrition due to nausea and vomiting”.

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.

In 2007, it is predicted that almost 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the United States (Pickle et al., 2007). More than half of these cancer patients will undergo the use of radiation as a means for treating cancer at some point during the course of their disease (Perez and Brady, 1998). Cancer, a disease caused by an uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells, affects millions of people around the world. Radiotherapy is one of the well known various methods used to treat cancer, where high powered rays are aimed directly at the tumor from the outside of the body as external radiation or an instrument is surgically placed inside the body producing a result of internal radiation. Radiation is delivered to the cancerous regions of the body to damage and destroy the cells in that area, terminating the rapid growth and division of the cells. Radiation therapy has been used by medicine as a treatment for cancer from the beginning of the twentieth century, with its earliest beginnings coming from the discovery of x-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen. With the advancements in physics and computer programming, radiation had greatly evolved towards the end of the twentieth century and made the radiation treatment more effective. Radiation therapy is a curative treatment approach for cancer because it is successful in killing cancerous tumor cells and stop them from regenerating.

Chemotherapy and radiation have been used for treatment of cancer since long time but many of the