Critical Incident Reflection

Reflection

The aim of the assignment is to reflect on a critical incident that had an impact in practice. By doing this I will need to write an exploration of the meaning and use of reflection, research into the different models which are used to reflect in practice. Also I will need to be able to have an understanding of what could have been prevented or improved within my critical incident, what I would do next time if in the same situation and what I have learnt. I will need to back up all my research and information with relevant literature. The Nursing and Midwifery Council state "You must respect people's right to confidentiality" This means that the information of this service user must be kept confidential and secure, for this reason I have changed my individuals name in order to keep everything confidential and secure and they will now be referred to as Miss Peters.
Miss Peters is a 16 year old with diabetes. She has recently been admitted to hospital for assessment and blood glucose monitoring which involves a series of venapunctures. The first samples of blood which were taken by the nurse earlier that day were faulty; she thus needed to repeat the procedure. Miss Peters was asleep when approached by the nurse. Rather than wake the patient, she proceeded to inspect Miss Peter’ arm to find a vein. Miss Peters promptly woke up and looked at the nurse, who, instead of explaining the procedure to her only asked "Are you ready?”.

According to Reid (1993, p.306)”Reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice”. This means making sense of practice and learning from it. It is when a nurse looks back and focuses on a certain experie...

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...e need to be able to communicate well with the patient in order for the individual to be able to understand what is going on around them or what sort of care/treatment they are given. This can be given verbally and written down on paper in a relevant or age appropriate way so that the individual is able to understand fully and that they are given the opportunity to ask further questions if they are unsure of anything that is taking place.
If I was to come across a similar experience like this again in the future I would make sure that I would speak up and be more confident in telling the nurse how I feel about the situation and that it would be a better idea to either wake the patient up to explain what had happened and if it was ok for the nurse to carry on, or to leave the patient until they had fully woken up before approaching them to carry out the procedure.