In this reflective account I will reflective upon an incident that occurred while on practice placement. I will identify how I recognised the limitations of my knowledge and skill as a student midwife and made the transition from a registered nurse to that of a student midwife. I will employ Gibbs (1988) reflective cycle, as it comprises six stages that will enable me to holistically reflect upon the incident. The name of the woman has been changed to Jane; with my mentor’s name has been changed to Lucy due to the Nursing and midwifery council (2008) code of professional conduct clause 5.1 which maintains treat patient’s information as confidential and use it only for the purpose for which it is given. I will begin giving a brief account of my previous work and training experience before commencing the midwifery course. A definition will be given of a Pinard’s stethoscope as it played a vital role.
I am a registered staff nurse who prior to commencing my midwifery training was working on a surgical ward facilitating pre and postoperative care for critically and chronically ill patients. I was fortunate that during my nursing training I had an opportunity to be assigned practice placement with the community midwives and visit the labour ward. After this learning experience I was able to make a decision to undertake midwifery training after completing the required period of post registration experience. While with the community midwife I attended antenatal clinics where I practiced midwifery skills, namely palpation and auscultation with a Pinard’s stethoscope and enhanced my communication skills. Unfortunately I was unable to hear anything through a Pinard’s stethoscope and so when I made a decision to pursue midwifery tr...
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... ensure that I practiced my communication, palpation and auscultation skills. I would ensure that I showed confidence when dealing with the women as lack of confidence may make the women anxious as they rely on the midwifery service to provide them the best possible care. I will continue to build on the knowledge and skill provided by my mentor Lucy namely communication, palpations and auscultation, as they are the major skills required to be a competent practitioner. I believe that in future this incident will have a great impact on the care I provide, as should any of the things that came up reappear I will be able to act upon appropriately. As a result of this incident I went home and carried out research on antenatal care and the routine for abdominal examinations. This was aimed at ensuring that I enhanced my knowledge base to allow me to cope effectively.
Critically discuss the challenges that may be encountered by the new graduate nurse/ midwife in one of the following areas within this domain:
For any mother the birth of a newborn child can be a challenging experience. As nurses it is part of our job to ensure their experience is positive. We can help do this by providing the information they will need to affective care for their newborn. This information includes topics such as, breastfeeding, jaundice, when to call your doctor and even how to put your baby to sleep. When the parents have an understanding of these topics before discharge it can largely reduce their natural anxiety accompanied with the transition to parenthood. Health teaching for new parents is seen as such an important aspect of care on post-partum floors it is actually a necessary component that needs to be covered before the hospital can discharge the patients. At the moment the strategies most hospitals use in Durham Region are Video’s and Parenting Booklets that are primarily based in the English Language. In such a culturally diverse region this becomes a barrier to providing the health teaching to patients who do not speak English as a first language (ESL). This reflection will explore the challenges I faced when providing health teaching to an ESL patient as well as the importance of health teaching in the post-partum area.
Saunders (2012) states that the treatment of a breech delivery requires the paramedic team to work simultaneously and efficiently to perform several interventions. He states that the paramedic team should undertake a primary survey and introduce themselves to the patient on arrival. From the initial patient contact, the paramedics should begin providing reassurance to the patient and their family, both verbally and non-verbally (Saunders, 2012). Reassurance aims to reduce patient anxiety, create a rapport with the patient and encourage an environment of care, respect and understanding (Pincus et al., 2013). The paramedic team should complete a secondary survey, including vital signs and a complete patient history, particularly pregnancy relevant
...o find a balance between interventional and non-interventional birth. With this being said, I also understand that there are strict policies and protocols set in place, which I must abide to as a healthcare provider, in any birth setting. Unfortunately, these guidelines can be abused. Christiane Northrup, MD, a well recognized and respected obstetrician-gynecologist has gone as far as to tell her own daughters that they should not give birth in a hospital setting, with the safest place being home (Block, 2007, p. xxiii). Although I am not entirely against hospital births, I am a firm believe that normal, healthy pregnancies should be fully permissible to all midwives. However, high-risk pregnancies and births must remain the responsibility of skilled obstetricians. My heart’s desire is to do what is ultimately in the best interest of the mother, and her unborn child.
This assignment focuses on an incident which was experienced during a community placement. The patient suffered from bowel cancer, my mentor and I were visiting her to change her dressing. The names of people have been changed to ensure confidentiality Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2008). Gibbs (1988) cited in Jasper (2013) will be used as the reflective model because it is simple and, easy to understand. Through the model’s six key stages I will describe my experience and how I maintained dignity while giving personal care to patients in the community. Writing a reflective account makes one relive their thoughts and, feelings and make appropriate changes when required (Howaston-Jones, 2013).
This reflective essay will discuss three skills that I have leant and developed during my placement. The three skills that I will be discussing in this essay are bed-bath, observing a corpse being prepared for mortuary and putting canulla and taking it out. These skills will be discussed in this essay using (Gibb’s, 1988) model. I have chosen to use Gibb’s model because I find this model easier to use and understand to guide me through my reflection process. Moreover, this model will be useful in breaking the new skills that I have developed into a way that I can understand. This model will also enable me to turn my experiences into knowledge that I can refer to in the future when facing same or similar situations. Gibbs model seems to be straightforward compared to the other model which is why I have also chosen it. To abide by the code of conduct of Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) names of the real patients in this essay have been changed to respect the confidentiality.
The intention of this written essay is to demonstrate an understanding of my views on reflection and the issues surrounding reflective practice. It is based on nursing skills that I used during my practice placement, most importantly reflecting on the professional value of privacy and dignity.
The following essay is a reflective paper on an event that I encountered as a student nurse during my first clinical placement in my first year of study. The event took place in a long term facility. This reflection is about the patient whom I will call Mrs. D. to protect her confidentiality. Throughout this essay I will be using LEARN model of reflection. I have decided to reflect on the event described in this essay since I believe that it highlights the need for nurses to have effective vital signs ‘assessment skills especially when treating older patients with complex medical diagnoses.
The main aim of this reflection is to demonstrate that I provided this care. During my training as a student nurse, I have been involved with many patients with complex needs of a with the support of a mentor, however this was, primarily, the first time since qualified and on completion of my registration that I became responsible and accountable for my practice.
The Codes of Practice is issues to all registered nurses, midwives and health visitors. The Council i...
In order to engage in meaningful communication and develop effective communication skills, nurses must engage in the process of reflecting on how communication skills are utilised in practise. Reflection allows the nurse opportunity to gain a deeper insight into personal strengths and weaknesses and to address any areas of concern in order to improve future practise (Taylor 2001). A further aim will be to reflect on how communication skills have been utilised within nursing practise. Various models of reflection will be examined, and a reflective account of a personal experience which occurred during placement will be provided using a model. This reflective account will involve a description the incident, an analysis of thoughts and feelings and an evaluation of what has occurred. Fin...
The purpose of this essay is to reflect and critically study an incident from a clinical setting whilst using a model of reflection. This will allow me to analyse and make sense of the incident and draw conclusions relating to personal learning outcomes. The significance of critical analysis and critical incidents will briefly be discussed followed by the process of reflection using the chosen model. The incident will then be described and analysed and the people involved introduced. (The names of the people involved have been changed to protect their privacy) and then I will examine issues raised in light of the recent literature relating to the incident. My essay will include a discussion of communication, interpersonal skills used in the incident, and finally evidence based practice. I will conclude with explaining what I have learned from the experience and how it will change my future actions.
Help improved my clinical skills and professional development, made me proactive and thus have learnt that reflection is an important tool for student nurse to improve on their practice.
Luckily, I am very comfortable with patients, which made providing care very easy. I was not afraid to go into other patient’s rooms if they rang for help. I would try my best to help the patients; however, if I needed help I was not afraid to ask a fellow student or nurse on the staff. It is very important to be able to talk to patients and work as a team with fellow coworkers as it made the job easier. On the other hand, I need to go over mother and baby assessments to become more familiar with both. I was able to complete the assessments; I now need to do so in a timelier manner while ensuring I do not forget any key areas. Lastly, it is vital that I continue to go over patient teaching prior to clinical. Being comfortable with the patients made the teaching easier, though I need to become more familiar with all the material that needs to be taught.
This journal is a reflection of my experiences and lessons learned thus far within this course. Upon my reflecting, there were lessons that stood out the most. Also, there are nursing practices in my associate’s degree of nursing program (ADN) that correlates with the standard of care that was recently discussed. This reflection also prompt me to consider more in depth the necessary skills and attributes to become a competent nurse.