Reflection as a Student Nurse on Placement PDF

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Running head: REFLECTION AS A STUDENT NURSE ON PLACEMENT

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REFLECTION AS A STUDENT NURSE ON PLACEMENT

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Reflection as a student nurse on Placement Reflection is an integral component of effective health care practice. Most of the regulatory health care bodies require reflective practice among health care practitioners for their registration (Bulman & Schutz, 2013). Reflective practice is important among health care professionals as it allows them to objectively look at their practice and learn their strengths and weaknesses (Lauren Caldwell, 2013). Arguably, this leads to an improvement in the quality of health care services; health care professionals offer their patients. As observed by Atwal and Jones (2009), reflective practice assists nurses in developing a greater sense of self awareness about themselves and others, which has been shown to spark personal growth and professional development. In this essay, I will structure my reflections on my placement using the Gibbs cycle of reflection that has six main stages namely description, feeling, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. Description In my first week in placement, I encountered a 65-year-old aboriginal patient at the triage. The patient had a history of diabetes and heart attack, and he had come for his monthly clinic sessions. The patient was from Gunggari in South-West Queensland. His English was not proficient. I had not met aboriginal patients before; however I recognised that they had special health care demands (Richardson & Stanbrook, 2015). He allowed me to check his temperature and pressure which I found to be normal. However, when I tried getting his heart rate, oxygen saturation and respiratory rate he resisted. At first I was perplexed as I had never witnessed such an occurrence before. When I asked him why he was resisting me taking the measurements, he only shook his head. As a result, I had to call the RN, who informed me that patient had sudden

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changes in his mood. The RN also told me that the patient was not comfortable with nonaboriginal medical staff attending to him. Feelings As mentioned in the preceding section, at first, I was scared when the patient refused me taking his oxygen saturation, respiratory rate and heart rate measurement. Notably, I could not figure out at the time why the patient had resisted. As a result, this led me to think that maybe I might have handled the patient inappropriately. Besides, I felt that maybe the patient thought I was not qualified since I was on placement. It was not until the RN briefed me on the patient’s history that I accepted it was not my fault. Evaluation The main positive from my encounter with the aboriginal patient is informing the RN immediately when the patient began resisting me taking the measurements. Undoubtedly, if I had persisted with taking the measurements, this would have provoked the patient even more and resulted in a scene in the triage. Analysis The experience helped me realise the importance of culturally sensitive care to aboriginal patients. When one is caring for aboriginal patients he/she has to recognise the effects of colonisation and culture on their behaviour (Kelly et al.,2018). For long, most aboriginal patients sought health care in their traditional facilities. It is only in recent years where they have begun seeking care in contemporary health care facilities. Besides, I realised that aboriginal people prefer honest and open communication and non-judgmental care when attending to them. Conclusion

REFLECTION AS A STUDENT NURSE ON PLACEMENT I should have familiarised myself on the caring for aboriginal patients before the placement. I erroneously assumed that I would not encounter any aboriginal patients. This is despite reported increases in the number of aboriginal people seeking health care in modern health care facilities. Action Plan In future, I plan to learn more about culturally sensitive care. The experience showed me how knowledge of culturally sensitive care is important in the caring of patients from diverse populations. Additionally, the experience demonstrated to me how language barriers affect the care a nurse gives to patients. When there is a language barrier, the nurse may not correctly identify the needs of the patient.

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REFLECTION AS A STUDENT NURSE ON PLACEMENT References Atwal, A., & Jones, M. (Eds.). (2009). Preparing for professional practice in health and social care. John Wiley & Sons. Bulman, C., & Schutz, S. (Eds.). (2013). Reflective practice in nursing. John Wiley & Sons. Kelly, J., Dowling, A., McBride, K., Keech, W., & Brown, A. (2018). ‘We get so task orientated at times that we forget the people’: staff communication experiences when caring for Aboriginal cardiac patients. Australian Health Review. Lauren Caldwell, RN, B. S. N. (2013). The importance of reflective practice in nursing. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 6(3), 319. Richardson, L., & Stanbrook, M. B. (2015). Caring for Aboriginal patients requires trust and respect, not courtrooms.

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