Reflective Reflection In 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

The professional value that I have chosen to reflect on from my practice is based on privacy and dignity for a patient admitted in the hospital. To enhance my reflection development, Driscoll (2007) model of reflection; What? So what? Now what? will be apply. According to (Lowenstein, Bradshaw, and Fuszard, 2004), reflection is the method of analysing and reviewing one’s practice as a nurse, with the aim of improving one’s interactive skills with both patient and colleagues. Reflection is a method of re-evaluating practice accounts and providing substitute tactics to doing things (Howatson-Jones, 2016). Reflection is a vital learning tools which can progress on innovative knowledge (O'Carroll, Park and Nicol, 2007) and enables the nurses to mirror on their practice effectively (Johns and Freshwater, 2009). The name used throughout this reflective assignment will be considered as pseudonyms to maintain confidentiality and to conform with the Nursing and Midwifery Code of Conduct (NMC) (2015).

Using Bortons (1970) model of reflection, I am going to reflect on an experience I have had whilst out in practice working on an acute dementia ward based in the north of England. There was a patient (Miss A) on the ward during my time at placement that constantly used to seek reassurance and was very repetitive with everything she said. The patient did sometimes become intimidating and threatening when she wouldn’t get attention from staff members. The ward had 18 patients we were nursing and it did become very hectic and challenging a lot of the times therefore staff did not always have the time to sit and have conversations with Miss A. One morning Miss A came to the nursing station as usual and constantly kept banning on the desk, the

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 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.

My knowledge from a number of first aid courses influenced my decisions in how to care for Max, for example knowing not to move Max due to suspected injuries. Also my knowledge gained from praxis lectures and clinical practice helped to influence my decisions as I knew the importance of keeping the patient warm, clean, comfortable and advised while assessing the patient. This was demonstrated when looking after Max as the care-giver and I used appropriate hygiene practices and communication between the care giver, myself and Max to guarantee we all knew what was happening as well as what was needed.

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

For the purpose of this essay, I have selected Gibbs (1988) Reflective Learning Cycle to reflect on an aspect of individual professional practice, which requires development in preparation for my role as a Registered Nurse. Gibbs (1988) Model of Reflection provides a clear description of a situation, analysis of feelings, evaluation of the experience, conclusion, and action plan to make sense of the experience to examine what you would do if the situation happens again.

With respect to my feelings, for the first few minutes after the incident, I struggled over the decision to inform my mentor about what I had witnessed or otherwise. I found it particularly challenging because as a first year student on my very first clinical placement, I had little or no clinical experience yet. I can relate this feeling to Carper’s (1978) fundamental pattern of knowing in nursing in which “during the personal way of knowing, the practitioner responds to situations in terms of their own mental models, vision,

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.

On the third week of my placement, I had the change to administer Intravenous antibiotics. It was an exciting moment for me to finally hold a needle and using it on a real patient. I did not have a chance to observe the nurse preparing the injected medication during the first two weeks. Thus, when my preceptor offered me to prepare the medication, I was trying to remember every step I learnt on Simulation block.

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.

Following an adaption of Johns’ model of structured reflection (Jasper, 2003), I will discuss an event that occurred during my residential placement as a nursing student, what I have learnt and how I would act if the situation arose again. Lastly, I will discuss what I have learnt in relation to the Nursing Council of New Zealand competencies for cultural safety and communication.

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.