Nursing Reflection Assignment: Reflecting On Nursing Interventions

Question

Task:

1. Familiarise yourself with the following NMBA Registered Nurse Standards for Practice (2016) from the Australian Nursing Standards Tool (ANSAT) document: Standard 4: Comprehensively conducts assessments. Use the documents ‘ANSAT Behavioural Cues’ as a further reference point.
2. Reflect on what you have learnt this semester related to a specific aspect of health assessment (health interviewing, measurement of TPR, or measurement of BP) as it relates to your developing ability to meet Criteria 4 of the ANSAT tool “Comprehensively Conducts Assessment”.
3. Using Gibb’s Cycle of Reflection [refer below] as a structured framework, reflect on the challenges that exist in completing objective and accurate clinical assessment, and what this will mean for you as a student on clinical placement next semester. The relevant ANSAT (Standard 4) must be referred to throughout your reflection.
4. Upload your reflection as a MS Word document via the Turnitin link in the NRSG139 LEO Assessment tile.
5. Keep an electronic copy of your reflection to add to your personal professional portfolio

Answer

Description
Later on the same day she was treated as an emergency case, as we came to know that she fainted. This was a clear indication of low BP as the lady had no other health issues. This event took place at the City Nursing Home, Australia. While conducting the morning checkups as discussed in this, I was accompanied by a staff nurse and General Physician. The doctor was checking up patients, the staff nurse was taking out medicines prescribed by the doctor for them and the head nurse was guiding me with the blood pressure measurement (Barksby, Butcher and Whysall, 2015).

Although I had realized the fact in this nursing reflection assignment that the machine was not giving satisfactory readings but could not point it out as the head nurse was guiding me and she was quite sure about the machines accuracy.

Feelings
As it had been a month that I had carried out the procedure of BP measurement by myself in this internship period, I was quite confident that I would be carrying out the task without any error. Hence for me that day also started in in confident manner. I was trained enough to handle the sphygmomanometer and that is why I could realize the error in it, but could not question the experience of the head nurse who was guiding me. Later on when the incidence happened with Ms. Cathy, I was pretty much regretful that I could have corrected her and she might not have been devoid of medicine. The harm was caused by the faulty as well as the bossy nature of head nurse who neglected my suggestion.

Thereby later I spoke to my mentor, who asked me to open up about this matter to the doctor. The doctor after knowing the case the same day took strict action. He asked for the head nurse as well as the faulty sphygmomanometer. Firstly the sphygmomanometer was checked by me and the doctor himself for error. As it was clear that there were no other external or internal factors that could lead to the wrong results, it was later found that the machine used that day for Ms. Cathy was a new one and uncalibrated also due to which zero digit bias was occurring (O'Brien et al, 2010). The head nurse was then warned and was asked to be more cautious and take up some training.

Evaluation: This incident discussed in this was quite alarming and challenging. I regret that I did not challenge the head nurse over the accuracy of the device and her experience considering myself to be novice. But I am really grateful that the lady is fine and nothing severe happened to her. Also I am pleased with the activeness of the doctor who took strict and quick action over the situation and took positive steps for this. The lesson that I learnt was that it was my responsibility also to check the calibration of the device and not blindly follow the senior’s verdict (Bulman, Lathlean and Gobbi, 2012). In order to safeguard the wellbeing of the patient I must believe my instinct and if I feel the situation to be not in my hand I need to take consult with the group of experts in the field and not only an individual person.

Analysis: The risk of both hypertension and hypotension are quite severe. The current generation is majorly suffering from hypotension, i.e. low B.P. Thus the department of health has taken several measures and awareness camps in order to eradicate these two hidden curse of our society (Hodgkinson ey al, 2010). According to the code of conduct for nursing practices the role of nurse is to minimize and identify the probable risks to patients or clients. Hence, I must apply this to myself also and try to keep my work as my first priority with honesty and diligence.

Conclusion
If I look back to this incidence discussed in this nursing reflection assignment then I realize that my action was not prompt and sound as it put Ms. Cathy at risk and I should have at least verified the doctor for further confirmation. But with the talk to my mentor I realized that I was not wrong from my side at that situation as its very much essential to obey our seniors who have got more experience. Also it’s quite uncertain that the error caused during the measurement of BP would always be the fault of instrument, sometimes it’s the patient’s body factors too which gives wrong values like any recent blood test performed, or effect of any food item, but the need for me was to stand confidently over my intuition and firmly but politely try to convince the head nurse about the error that I could notice (Jameton, 2013). This would have been better if I would have had been in more good terms with the staffs, my introvert nature had created the boundary which I need to overcome. The seniors are indeed better in every aspect but knowledge is something which never ages and we must learn from every one irrespective of their position or status. Nursing reflection Assignment assignments are being prepared by our nursing assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable university assignment help service.

Action Plan: In future, in order to ensure that the clients health is not kept at risk, I will try to develop or enhance my assertive skills like communication and social skills, this will help me to stand up for my own or other persons right in a more calm and positive manner. Thus in my next training or in any future work of this nursing reflection assignment I will try to work out some strategies in order to achieve these skills. Before that in order to train myself I will join clubs as well as initiate awareness camps which will be majorly focused on lowering the risks of medical errors while instrument handling (Eng and Pai, 2015). And as inferred in this nursing reflection assignment I should try my level best that I can keep the institutions integrity without compromising on the patients’ health and well-being.

Reference
Barksby, J., Butcher, N., & Whysall, A. (2015). A new model of reflection for clinical practice. Nursing Time, 111, 34-35.

Bulman, C., Lathlean, J., & Gobbi, M. (2012). The concept of reflection in nursing: Qualitative findings on student and teacher perspectives. Nurse education today, 32(5), e8-e13.

Eng, C. J., & Pai, H. C. (2015). Determinants of nursing competence of nursing students in Taiwan: The role of self-reflection and insight. Nurse Education Today, 35(3), 450-455.

Hodgkinson, J., Mant, J., Martin, U., Guo, B., Hobbs, F. D. R., Deeks, J. J., ... & McManus, R. J. (2011). Relative effectiveness of clinic and home blood pressure monitoring compared with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in diagnosis of hypertension: systematic review. Bmj, 342, d3621.

Jameton, A. (2013). A reflection on moral distress in nursing together with a current application of the concept. Journal of bioethical inquiry, 10(3), 297-308.

McCOMBIE, D., Dhillon, M., & Banet, M. (2013). U.S. Patent No. 8,475,370. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

O'Brien, E., Atkins, N., Stergiou, G., Karpettas, N., Parati, G., Asmar, R., ... & Working Group on Blood Pressure Monitoring of the European Society of Hypertension. (2010). European

Society of Hypertension International Protocol revision 2010 for the validation of blood pressure measuring devices in adults. Blood pressure monitoring, 15(1), 23-38.