Reflection on Manual Handling in Nursing: Importance of Safe Patient Handling

Running head: REFLECTION ON MANUAL HANDLING
REFLECTION ON MANUAL HANDLING
Name of the student:
Nam of the university:
Author note:

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REFLECTION ON MANUAL HANDLING
Description of the event:
During the month of my clinical placements, I had the opportunity of going through
many positive experiences that had helped in enhancing my skills and had helped me in
enhancing my knowledge. However, I had also gone through many negative experiences that had
given me the scope to understand the skills and knowledge I lack in different aspects of nursing.
One of such negative incident that I went through was during the times of manual handling. I
was working during the night shift when there were very few healthcare professionals who had
to serve the huge number of patients admitted to the medical surgical ward. My immediate senior
asked me to help a patient clear his urine and then give his pills before allowing him to sleep. I
had not undertaken any manual handling tasks before but I could not say anything to her out of
fear. After attending the patient, I noticed that he was quite old will mobility issues and had been
suffering from osteoarthritis. He was obese and had gone several falls that had resulted in bruises
all over his body. I tried to pick him up from the bed and asked him to put his hand around my
shoulder. The patient did not understand what he needs to do and was trying to hold different
objects in the room like tables, chairs and many others. While handling the patient and helping
him to walk, I realized that I am not being able to take his weight anymore and his fidgety nature
and confusion resulted in a uncertain situation where we both feel on the floor. He got wounds in
different parts of his body and I was hurt as well. However, the senior nurse criticized me and
this affected me immensely.
Feeling:
From the entire incidence, I became quite shocked and tensed. I was shocked
because I could never imagine that my care service could lead to suffering of the patient.

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REFLECTION ON MANUAL HANDLING
Therefore, I felt quite upset and disappointed after the entire incident and my self-esteem was
entirely broken. I felt guilty of providing wrong intervention to the patient that resulted in more
suffering and pain for the patients. Patients admit to hospitals to get safe and quality care from
professionals who help them to recover and come back to normal quality life (Singh & Sittig,
2015). I was feeling low because I could not provide quality and safe care to the patient and
could not fulfill my responsibility. I realized that I was not competent with my nursing skills and
knowledge and I needed more training before manual handling.
Evaluation:
Ineffective manual handling mainly results in the huge number of negative consequences
for the patients as well as the nursing professionals (Hignett et al., 2016). It results in various
types of accidents that often contribute in additional suffering of the patient besides the already
present disorder that is giving the patients hard time (Kneafsey et al., 2015). Often various
accidents that the patients might face can result in deterioration of their condition that might
make them live poor quality life with huge amount of suffering (Risor et al., 2017). The bad part
of the incident was that the patient in the case study was already suffering from osteoarthritis and
had already fell down a number of times and as a professional, it was my duty to ensure safe
environment and care so that he does not have to go through such experiences again. However, I
had failed immensely in the service. The good part of the incident was that it helped me realize
that i need more knowledge and skills in effective handling of the patients in a safe and secured
manner so that such accidents do not take place in the future.