Self Reflection In Nursing

Compassion, commitment, courage; three words that I would associate with the role of being a nurse. By going into nursing I believe that I will be able to make a difference, even changing one life for the better is far more rewarding than anything I could ever imagine. I have always admired the role nurses play in the lives of so many, not only patients, but also the families of those in their care. I believe that it is essential for a nurse to be able to listen and communicate with not only their patients but also those around them.

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.

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.

Medication errors are the leading cause of morbidity and preventable death in hospitals (Adams). In fact, approximately 1.5 million Americans are injured each year as a result of medication errors in hospitals (Foote). Not only are medication errors harmful to patients but medication errors are very expensive for hospitals. Medication errors cost America’s health care system 3.5 billion dollars per year (Foote).Errors in medication administration occurs when one of the five rights of medication administration is omitted. The five rights are: a) the right dose, b) the right medication, c) the right patient, d) the right route of administration, and e) the right time of delivery (Adams). Medication administration is an essential part of

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.

There are many demanding professional adjustments when transitioning from student nurse to graduate nurse and the use of refection during this time is said to be a very important tool in guiding the learning process. It is common in the field of nursing to utilise reflection to critically analyse certain experiences and reflect on how they made them feel and react. This involves looking deeper into a particular experience and deciding what was good, what was bad and what would be a better course of action if they were to re encounter it in the future. However there may be potential barriers when trying to make judgements about a students inner most thoughts and personal experiences. The purpose of this essay is to critically analyse the concept of reflection and to find out if it is an essential component to nursing practise in the transition from student nurse to graduate registered nurse.

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

Medication errors are focused on: terms and definitions; incidence of and harm; risk factors; avoidance; disclosure, legalities & consequences (Wittich, Burkle & Lanier, 2014). Medication errors categories have been developed by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). Examples of these categories are based on prescribing, omitting drugs not administered, timing, unauthorized drug, wrong dosage, wrong preparation, expired drug, not using laboratory data to monitor toxicity (Wittich, Burkle & Lanier, 2014). Additionally, this article examines in depth common causes leading to medication errors, drug nomenclature, similar sounding drugs, unapproved abbreviations and handwriting, medical staff shortages and manufacturer medication shortages. Even though this article provides an informative overview for physicians, other allied health personnel may benefit too. This is valuable knowledge for the health care professional not just physicians in order to provide safe care for their

The clinician demonstrated evidence based practice in his care. By informing the patient about the procedure and waiting for a clear approval. He demonstrated great communication skills as well as keeping the client’s values and circumstance at the core of his care throughout. In addition, the five moments of hand hygiene, aseptic technique and the rights of medication administration of current best practice were utilised. Furthermore, clinical expertise were demonstrated the clinician completed the task in a timely manner with good dexterity highlighting that he has been administering IV therapy for quite some time and is experienced in the way he handled the

Finally, my flush order came through and I was able to give my medications. By following the six rights of medication administration and with the help of Professor Cole, I gave my Heparin shot first. This was easy to me because I had give an insulin shot at the previous clinical. It was, however, a big difference between younger skin and older skin to poke. This is how I met the objective: provides safe care. Next, I gave Pepcid through IV push. This skill I had practiced in the skills lab multiple times, but I still felt kind of “shaky” because it was a skill that I wasn’t fully confident in. I think what I struggled with was the dilution and figuring the milliliters that should be given over the amount of time according to medication. Professor Cole boosted my confidence and it was nice having her there to help me along. I complete the IV push very competently. After performing that, I will now say that I am not afraid of IV push medications. Just remembering to check compatibility and administration rate as well as dilution is very important.

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.

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.

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.