Descriptions

Reflection is one of the most important attribute that is necessary for the development of the critical, autonomous as well as advanced professionals in the healthcare sectors. Researchers say that reflection is a continuous cycle in which experiences as well as reflection on these experiences are interrelated (Asheley and Stamp 2014). Nursing professionals who take time for reflecting on their daily practices become more efficient.  This helps them in providing enhanced nursing care and also develops a better understanding of their actions (David, Taylor and Reyes 2014). This in turn helps in developing their professional skills. Reflective practice can also be defined as the ability to examine ones actions and the associated experiences so that they can develop their practices and enhance their clinical skills. In order to make the reflections more effective, certain traits like open-mindedness, courage and willingness to accept followed by acting on and criticizing on owns actions are very important (Naber and Wyatt 2014). In this assignment, I will be using the Gibbs reflective cycle to effectively reflect two experiences I had and how by properly reflecting on them, I came to learn my weakness and worked on them successfully.

The first step is called the description stage. In this stage the incidents are mainly described which needs to be reflected in the assignments. The first experience which I need to reflect took place in the pharmacy department. While I was busy handling the prescription of the customers in the busy ward, noticed that a fellow colleague of mine took the pharmacist badge in the absence of the pharmacist and used it to access the patient’s information. Although I wanted to warn her and prevent her from doing so, I failed to prevent her as there was a long queue of customers waiting for their medicines and they were getting agitated due to the long queues.  However, in order to prevent that any confidential information and privacy of any client is breached, I immediately talked with the pharmacist manager. I disclosed him with the entire incident so that he can take proactive steps from the badge being used irresponsibly hampering the confidentiality and privacy of the patients. Following this, I noticed a change in the activities of the fellow colleague who from that time onwards, never used badge of the pharmacists of other seniors to access to patients’ information. Another incident that took place occurred when a old customer of the age 70 came to the pharmacy with a bleeding thumb. He was quite terrified and shaking in fear and pain. With the advice of the pharmacist I cleaned the wound o that she can come and apply the dressing. In the meantime, I communicated with him to keep his focus away from his thumb and tried to cool him down. However, I noticed that the pharmacist without cleaning his hand started applying medicines and dressing the wound. This was entirely against the guideline to be followed for hand hygiene. I could not tell anything in front of the customer as he would get more terrified. However I was quite concerned about the patient’s safety and started blaming myself for not taking any step against the wrong treatment done with him.  Personal Development And Emotional Competence In Healthcare Example Paper

Feelings

This step mainly incorporates the stage where an individual reflects that she or he was feeling at that particular time when he or she was engaged in the situations. In the first situation, I was quite surprised by the behavior of my colleague. I was quite shocked that how she was neglecting her professional values which were one of the most important domain of the 4 nursing and Midwifery Council Domains (2010).  It is the duty of every nurse to maintain honesty and dignity of her profession and to abide by the pledge of conducting activities which will be of much important to betterment of human kind (Cocksege, Bark and Deakin 2015). However, she was neglecting her duties by not following professionalism at her workplace and using her senior’s badge for certain activities without the senior’ consent. Although I was a bit disappointed about her activity but I was also wondering that whether she was properly trained with her professional skill and mannerisms. A properly trained nurse should never try to conduct such an unprofessional act (Scanlon et al. 2015). I was not being able to understand what to do as I was quite confused that whether I should attend the customers or call my colleague an correct her. However after overcoming my dilemma I narrated the incident to manager thinking that this would ultimately stop the unprofessional act which was taking place at the pharmacy ward. In the second incident also, I was feeling very helpless as I could not decide what actions I needed to take at that particular moment. I was feeling down to see that the pharmacist was completely breaching one of the main domains of the 4 nursing and Midwifery Council Domains (2010) called the nursing practice and decision banking. She should have known how such a careless activity of him can make the patient’s life vulnerable to danger (O’Conell, Gardner and Coyer 2014). I also felt that one another domain called the communication skills and interpersonal skills were very poor as in both cases I failed to communicate with the opposite person effectively to directly handle the situations properly.

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This step mainly includes the individual to evaluate the different good and bad factors which remain associated with the experiences. From the very first incident, I realized that the bad factor about the incident was that the nursing professional was taking chances with the confidentiality and privacy of the patients. Any irresponsible activity by her could have exposed the privacy and confidentiality of a large number of patients to different dishonest persons (Lima et al. 2014). However the good part was that although I could not confront the colleague directly, however, I was able to stop the wrong activity by making the manager know about the incident. I was ultimately successful in stopping the individual form conducting such dishonest practices in the future which is strictly against the professional values quoted by 4 nursing and Midwifery Council Domains (2010). From this experience, I learnt that similar situations may arise in the future but I have to be proactive in stopping the colleague from doing so while handling the long queue of customers at the same time. I evaluate that I do not have proper multitasking skills which are very important for proper leadership and management. This is also one of the four domains of the 4 nursing and Midwifery Council Domains (2010). In the next incident, the bad factor was that the patient was getting expose to harmful practice. As the pharmacist had not properly maintain hand hygiene, this increased the chances of the old patients’ cut on the thumb to be infected by microorganisms which would have increased his sufferings making it more adverse than the situation it is present (Attard et al. 2014).  A small cut which could have been properly treated by maintaining proper guidelines could have been aggravated into a diverse situation due to not following of the guidelines (Mills, and ad Fraser 2015). It was a complete breach of the one of the domain of the 4 nursing and Midwifery Council Domains (2010) called the proper nursing skills and correct decision making. The worse situation was that I was unable to protest against this practice mainly because I could not use my communication skills properly and did not have the confidence to make her understand that it was a wrong practice. Therefore, in way I also breached the domain of proper communication skills application of the 4 nursing and Midwifery Council Domains (2010).

Evaluation

This step mainly incorporates those senses that an individual can make from the situations (Kim et al. 2015). While analyzing the situations, a large number of factors came into mind. I realized that the nursing professional who has used the badge of the pharmacist must have not had proper training before she was placed in the position in the pharmacy ward. If she would have had proper training she would have never conducted such an irresponsible activity and would have definitely consulted with the pharmacist before using the badge of that person (Sastre et al. 2014). Moreover, such an activity of the nursing professional was strictly against the professional duties of healthcare practitioners and therefore in way she had breached her responsibility (Hood et al. 2014). She had not followed the principles if nursing where she had utilized a negative means of way for getting access to private and confidential information of the patients which she was not supposed to handle. She should have consulted with the pharmacist before taking his badge as it shows professionalism and proper mannerism (Dalton et al. 2015). However, I also believe that the approach I had taken for making the colleague know about his immoral activity was not right. Personal Development And Emotional Competence In Healthcare Example Paper Communication theories state that more directs the information shared; there is less chance of misunderstanding and distribution of sentiments and mentioning of sentences. Although no negative outcomes were noticed, my colleague could have felt bad as show could have expected me to directly communicate with her before telling the incidence to the managers. She might have had developed negative feelings for me thinking that I have complained about her to the managers (Fullerton et al. 2016). In turn, is should have properly communicated with her about the issue at the same time collecting medicines according to medicines. In that way, I could have maintained professionalism as well as proper communication skills. This would have helped me in handling the situation more effectively and avoiding any issues which would have negatively impacted on the working environment. In the second incident, I analyzed I am quite timid in my approaches whenever any challenging situations occur. This is one of the negative aspects of my communication skills. Although I understood that the pharmacist was not aligning with the hand hygiene guidelines, I still remain quiet and faced a dilemma that whether I should tell the pharmacist of her mistake or whether I should have respectful for her higher position and keep quite. However, this was a wrong activity from my end as I was taking chances with the patients’ health. His condition could have deteriorated if his cut on his thumb would have been infected due to improper hand hygiene of pharmacist (Sinclair et al. 2016). However, although I could not communicate in this strenuous situation, but I communicated quite effectively with the patients and established a very good rapport with him. He felt comfortable with as I was able to build a successful relationship with him. Therefore, my nursing practice and skills were properly followed by me and I tried my best to provide the best care to him.

Analyze

Conclusion:

This step mainly discusses what steps the individual could have taken that would have a better impact on the outcomes of the situations. Both the incidents could have been handled very differently maintaining the four important domains of the Nursing and Midwifery Council Domains (2010). If one ponders over the first incidence, it can be seen that the situation could have been handled in different ways (Daupin et al. 2016). First of all, as an experienced nurse i should not have approached the manager at the fist level. Rather, I should have first approached the colleague who had conducted the dishonest act. I should have developed proper multitasking ability. Along with handling the prescription of the patients, I should have taken out few moments to help her understand the breaches she is making in her professional responsibilities (McCloughan and Foster 2017). I should have not approached the manager on the very first instance as the colleague might feel that I have complained on hr part which might make my relationship with her critical. Rather I should have taken the direct approach of communication rather than taking an indirect mode of communication which increases negativity, misunderstanding and misunderstanding at workplace. It was evident from the situation, that my colleague did not conduct the unprofessional behaviour again but if I would have been the one to inform her there would be less chance of development of negative feelings at a later date. The different initiative that I should have taken in the second incident is that I should have directly confronted the pharmacist on the very first instance. I should have directly prevented him from dressing the wounds as she had not followed proper hand hygiene for this activity. In that situation, I should have not indulged into any form of dilemma of preventing my senior to take such a wrong procedure of nursing practice. My first aim should have been saving the life of the patient and providing him the best care with the safest intervention (Husebo et al. 2015). I should have not pondered much into any other issues and should have kept the patents life as the main aim. I should have politely requested the pharmacist to follow the proper hand hygiene guidelines by providing her the cleaning gel. I should have taken care that my body language and approach should not be over empowering or rude to the pharmacist. I believe this could have made the situation better. The patient would have received the best care with the safest interventions.

The first initiative that I should undertake is my development of communication skills and interpersonal skills. I have noticed that I am quite efficient in establishing effective communication with patients but I am not effective in communicating with my colleagues and seniors. The main barrier that affects my communication with them is my personal thought, fear and insecurity. I fear that my colleagues and seniors may get upset about my behaviour if I confront them and make them realize my mistakes. From the refection, I realize that I am an escapist and try to avoid any situation which might create negative feelings in others about me. However, in doing so, I realized that I am actually affecting the health of the patients. Therefore, my first objective would be to develop my communication skills with colleagues and seniors. I should try to consult with my mentor and ask him about the strategies I can take to do so. I can also follow books on communication topics in healthcare which can give me ways to overcome the issues. Moreover famous journals have articles where researchers have provided recommendations to overcome such issues. I will follow them effectively. All these would ultimately give me ways by which I will be able to confidently communicate with my seniors and colleagues and ensure patient safety. This would require about 5 to 6 months. This is one of the most important of the 4 nursing and Midwifery Council Domains (2010). Secondly, another issue that I have also faced is my leadership or management traits which are yet other important domains of the 4 nursing and Midwifery Council Domains (2010). This is said so because I failed to multitask properly and handle the issues properly. When I noticed that my colleague was using the badge of the pharmacist, I could not interact with her as I had to handle a long queue of customers who were waiting with their prescriptions for medicines. Effective leadership traits include proper multitasking where all the important tasks need to be completed without affecting the flow of the work in the workplace. My action plan would thereby include learning of strategies which would help me to become a more effective multi-tasker. I should also go through the books written by stalwarts in these fields so that I can read and understand how multitasking can be done effectively. This should help me to be a better leader as well as capable manager in the near future. I should also go through several internet sources which would help me to know the ways to develop multitasking skills. This will require a period of about 6 to 8 months to effectively develop the skills.

Conclusion

Conclusion:

The reflective piece of writing had indeed helped me to develop a self-analysis report which would be of immense help in my career in the future. The reflective writing had helped me to develop a deep insight into the experiences I had while I was placed in the pharmacy ward. I had developed ideas about my weakness which I need to work on. I had communication issues with colleagues and seniors although I am efficient in communicating with patients. Moreover I realized that I lack confidence to handle any situations which might create tensions in the working environment. However, I realized that patient health would be my topmost priority and therefore I have to overcome such escapist attitude as my professional duties do not support such behaviors in my work place. The professional duty of a nurse is to provide safe interventions to the patients and to maintain patent satisfaction. However I am quite competent in establishing effective relationship with my patients as my communication with the patient helped him to calm down. However, I have to develop proper management and leadership traits where I should try to develop my multitasking ability. Nursing profession always needs nurses to be effective in handling a large number of tasks at the same time without making mistakes. Busy shifts would require me to be proactive and hence I should develop this ability in the future. This reflection provided me the scope to understand my weakness and to work on them so that I can become a better professional in the future.

References:

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McCloughen, A. and Foster, K., 2017. Nursing and Pharmacy students’ use of emotionally intelligent behaviours to manage challenging interpersonal situations with staff during clinical placement: a qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Nursing.  Personal Development And Emotional Competence In Healthcare Example Paper