Reflecting on Disability: Using Gibbs Reflective Cycle

Running head: DISABILITY
DISABILITY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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DISABILITY
Gibbs reflective cycle is to be used to reflect on the topic "Disability."
Description:
During the time of clinical placement in the aged care, I had gone through a negative
experience. I had to care for a 78-year-old patient who was in his initial stages of dementia. He
had a disability of mobility where severe deterioration of the disorder of osteoarthritis had
affected his knees and joints in the hip region. He had faced a sharp fall that resulted in bruising
in many parts of the body. His son had immediately brought her to the hospital, and I had cared
for the wounds. I dressed the wounds properly, but I found the patient very anxious and stressed
in the hospital environment. He could not remember that he had the disability of mobility issues
and tried to come out of the bed. Moreover, he was also not comfortable in the hospital
environment and tried many times to go home when I was busy documenting different aspects.
Therefore, to keep him calm and to reduce his risks of fall, I applied physical restraints to him
and left the place. The next day, the patient was seen to be in a poor state, bruised and crying and
complaining to his son that he was ill-treated. I was summoned by the department to show cause
of this action.
Feeling:
I was quite surprised to see the outcome, as I had never expected the situation to become
worse. The patient had the disability of poor and restricted mobility and therefore he was at a
larger risk of fall. To protect him from falling due to his disability, I had applied the intervention.
However, I was quite upset about the situation being worsened, as the patient was scared and
anxious the next morning. He had faced several bruises overnight as he had tried to be released
from the restraints. This aspect has worsened his health condition and this made me feel guilty

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DISABILITY
and embarrassed. I was also disappointed that I could not provide person-centered and respectful
care to the patient. The patient was highly dissatisfied with the attention.
Evaluation:
The bad part of the incident was that the person did not receive person-centered care and
was highly dissatisfied. The patient had the disability, as his mobility was restricted. Instead of
providing adequate care and making his stay comfortable in the hospital, I had applied restraints
to him. This intervention was an inappropriate approach. Researchers are of the opinion that
physical restraints result in mental and emotional turmoil in patients making them feels
disrespected and dishonored (Azuh et al., 2016). Their self-esteem gets hurt and affects the
therapeutic relationship between nurses and patients (Anderson et al., 2015). Instead of providing
effective intervention for his disability in the hospital, I offered him restraints and this was the
wrong approach from my side. The only good part was that this incident helped me to understand
that physical restraint is not the correct intervention for treating the disability of mobility. I
realized that I needed to develop more knowledge about how to handle such disability issues in
healthcare centers that would help in the development of the quality of life of the patients.
Analysis:
The nursing professionals need to be very aware of the interventions that they need to
apply when patients with mobility disability get admitted in the ward. The nurses need to assist
the patients with muscle exercises like the execution of the abdominal tightening exercises and
bending of the knees, hopping on foot as well as standing on the toes (Gulanick & Myers, 2016).
These aspects would help in gaining the enhanced sense of balance as well as strengthen
compensatory body parts. However, I did not think of taking any such actions while caring for