This reflective account details the author's learning experiences and challenges faced during nursing practice, emphasizing the significance of reflective practice in improving care standards. The author analyzes personal and clinical experiences, utilizing Gibbs' reflective model to evaluate and enhance their nursing skills and understanding of patient care. Additionally, a career plan is outlined, aiming to secure a position in nursing while acknowledging the importance of critical thinking and emotional support in patient interactions.

1. Reflective Account
RETURN TO NURSING PRACTICE REFLECTIVE LOG MODULE LEADER: STUDENT
NUMBER: 1 INTRODUCTION This essay demonstrates the significant learning that resulted as a
consequence of using critical reflection on my practice. The reflective process helped me to realise
how my practice needed to change after I experienced a personal and practice–related issue during
and after my clinical placement. Reflective practice is an important component of all nurse
education programmes. The Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) The Code: Standards of
Conduct, Performance and Ethics for nurses and Midwives (NMC, 2008), states that nurses must
continue to keep knowledge and skills up to date during...show more content...
My supervisor was happy. However, once I had undergone the whole experience of having a
retrograde appendix removed myself, I discovered that the pre–operative preparation and
post–operative care that was given to me, and I myself would have given something similar,
inadequate. Although my experience as an adult on an adult ward would have been slightly
different to the teenager that I cared for, the principles of care are similar. Differences in care may
have been due to staff–patient ratios and policies around visiting and family–centred care. In my
experience I suffered an inability to cough, anorexia, changes in taste and diet, being limited in
walking and mobilising and general and mental malaise. I even surprised myself by worrying about
my body image due to the size of the scar on my abdomen. Although these experiences were
personal to me, I assumed that many of these conditions and thoughts are typical and would have
been equally suffered by the teenager that I cared for. Nothing was mentioned at any time to me pre–
or post–operatively about any of these experiences. I never saw any leaflets at the time of my
appendectomy but I discovered a patient information leaflet for the Gloucestershire Health
Community regarding coughing after surgery. It states that it is important that you can cough
post–operatively so that you can clear any phlegm that has accumulated whilst being intubated
during surgery. It gives you guidance on how to get rid
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2. Nursing Reflection Essay
Reflection on a clinical Skill
This essay will discuss a clinical skill in which I have become competent in practicing as a
student nurse. I will use a reflective model to discuss how I have achieved the necessary level of
competence in my nurse training programme. The reflective model I have chosen to use is Gibbs
model (Gibbs 1988). Gibbs model of reflection incorporates the following: description, feelings,
evaluation, analysis, conclusion and an action plan (Gibbs 1988). The model will be applied to the
essay to facilitate critical thought, relating theory to practice where the model allows. Discussion
will include the knowledge underpinning practice and the evidence base for the clinical skill. A
conclusion to the essay will...show more content...
My mentor said that this was acceptable and I continued to administer the injection, omitting the use
of the alcohol wipe. On the previous occasions when I had administered IM injections I had not
cleansed the site and had never been instructed to adopt this practice.
I am now going to enter into the second stage of Gibbs (1988) model of reflection, which is a
discussion about my thoughts and feelings. I was aware of being under the supervision of two
qualified nurses and this made me feel very nervous and self conscious. Once my mentor
questioned my practice, concerning skin cleansing, I became even more aware of feeling nervous
and under pressure. The patient was present and I did not want the patient to feel that I did not
know what I was doing. I thought that as I had been observed carrying out this clinical procedure
on many other occasions then my practice must have been seen to be correct. I was now feeling
very confused about the use of alcohol wipes in the administration of IM injection. I was also
concerned that the practice of the qualified nurses was so inconsistent, which led me to evaluate the
whole process.
Evaluation is the third stage of Gibbs (1988) model of reflection and requires the reflector to with
state what was good and bad about the event. I was aware that research by Workman (1999)
suggests that the use of skin cleansing wipes is inconsistent and not necessary in IM injections if the
patient appears to be physically clean
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3. Nursing Reflective Essay
The nursing profession carries high standards of care, and reflective practice is one the ways of
assisting nurses with reviewing their practice standards and ensuring it is continuously
satisfactory. Throughout this essay the concept of reflective practice, what it is and how it can
benefit nurses will be reviewed, and a personal reflection of traits will be conducted and a career
plan will be formulated. To understand why reflective practice is important for nurses, it is crucial
to understand the meaning of reflection. Reflection comes from the Latin verb reflectere, which
means to bend backwards or to turn around (Daly, J., Speedy, S., & Jackson, D, 2013). As a nurse,
reflective practice is the process of questioning and analysing your practice in order to ensure optium
practice (Kenny. L, 2017). Reflective is beneficial as it assists with personal and intellectual growth
(Tashiro, Shimpuku, Naruse, Maftuhah & Matsutani 2013), and is a way to comprehend why things
occur (Johns, 2013). Reflective practice also ensures the practice does not become routine but
instead aligned with the nurses values (Daly et al., 2013). Looking at my traits, attributes and...show
more content...
In order for me to achieve this I have put forth a career plan. I have begun my Bachelor of Nursing
(BN) this year and will complete it in 3 years (2020) if I continue doing full time study as planned.
This degree will act as the foundation in my plan, as I will learn essential concepts such as
anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, the care I need to provide etc. Upon completing
my first year placement I will be qualified to work as an assistant in nursing (AIN). Therefore,
once I complete my placement I will ensure I work hard to attain a job in the field. It would be
preferable to land a job at Seasons or Logan Hospital seeing as they are near my house. I will try my
best to maintain this job all throughout my
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4. Nursing Reflective Journal
Course objective 1: Use beginning critical thinking and clinical judgement when providing safe,
quality nursing care This objective was reflected in the medication pass for my patient this week. He
medication list was much more complicated than my past patients. Additionally, she had medications
that I was very unfamiliar with. She was taking an anti–parkinson agent every day despite not having
the disease. I was able to look up the medicine and discovered that she was taking it to reduce the
shaking caused by a prior stroke. This morning was much busier and far more hectic than past weeks.
The busyness was distracting during the time I prepped to administer medication to my patient. This
experience reminded me that it is essential to maintain focus when dealing with drug safety. Nurses
always use critical thinking and clinical judgement when going through the six rights for medications.
What were your goals today? Did you achieve your goals?
My goal today was to be there for my patient both with nursing care and any emotional support they
may need. I found...show more content...
We have been discussing the impact of culture and religion on patient care. I often will sit with
residents that are sitting alone in the dining room, and one woman and I had a unique
conversation. She expressed her anxiety regarding and upcoming appointment. She had been
having problems with fluid accumulating in her lungs and her doctor did not know what the
cause was. She expressed her nervousness and asked me if I was a Christian. I said yes, and she
asked if I would be willing to pray for her. This interaction made me realize the profound role nurses
can have in holistic health. I was able to bring her comfort and solace through something that held
great value to her. I am thankful for this interaction and look forward to other connections to be
made between lecture and
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5. Reflective Essay Nursing
This reflective essay is based on the personal SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats)
analysis, to understand my leadership potential. It will define leadership within the context of the
National Health Service (NHS) leadership as well as highlight some of the current incidents relate to
poor leadership. Additionally, it will briefly discuss some of the relevant leadership theories that
can be applied to nursing practice whilst exploring my own leadership style. Lastly, this essay will
reflect the scenario from practice to support my "strengths" and "weakness" whilst developing a
SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time–Bound) goal plan to address one of
my weaknesses and then the conclusion will be drawn summarising...show more content...
These rewards come in the form of salary increment, bonus and recognition (Gill 2011). Employees
who fail to perform well are punished (Bass 2008). Howell and Avolio (1993) study confirms that
the contingent rewards leadership has a negative effect on follower's performance (Gill 2011).
Similarly, transactional leadership is based on a contingent reward and punishment system, it does
not offer much in term of motivating and inspiring people (Bach and Ellis 2011).
To become an effective leader, a leader needs to be self–aware of their personal strengths and
weaknesses (Marquis and Huston 2009). Therefore, a SWOT analysis [Appendix1] was performed
to identify the four aspects of my "strength", "weakness", "opportunity" and "threats". For this
assignment, I will use one aspect of my strengths "good listener" and one aspect of my weaknesses
"lack of
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