Assignment on Medical Surgical Nursing

Medical Surgical Nursing (Spring 2017)1
Reflection on Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) performance
Description
(100 words)
Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is very important tool for the assessment of
healthcare professional while performing actual practice. I was assigned to administer intramuscular
heparin to a patient who underwent cholecystectomy. Cholecystectomy was performed to remove
gallbladder. This surgery can relive from pain due to gallstones and this surgery is with minimum risk.
These patients with pre-existing cardiac conditions require anticoagulant treatment. I was monitoring
prothrombin time of the patient to prevent haemorrhage. Cardiopulmonary functions of the patient were
carefully monitored.
Feelings
(100 words)
Due to OSCE, I was nervous prior to administration of the heparin. However, I was sure about my best
performance. I was worried about the pain to patient at the time of injection. Hence, I took him in
confidence and asked him to divert his mind form the injection. It gave me confidence and patient also
felt comfortable at the time of injection. I felt relived after the completion of the procedure. I was
thinking, whether I could have done in better way ? . I strongly believe that, there is always scope for
improvement in the nursing practice.
Evaluation
(150 words)
Even though, I was nervous prior to the procedure, it was in mind that I can perform this procedure
accurately. Nervousness is obvious before certain important assessment. However, my skills and
interest in patient care gave me confidence. I was aware that nervousness can be effectively managed

Medical Surgical Nursing (Spring 2017)2
by effective communication. In nursing practice, effective communication plays important role in
providing holistic care. It was evident during my OSCE. Non-verbal communications can inform you
about your accuracy. Through non-verbal communication with my evaluator, I understood that my
procedure was correct.
Prior to administration of the heparin to the patient, allergic reaction to the patient need to be assessed.
However, as I was more focusing on the administering heparin, I forgot to administer patient with
antibiotic. Medication administration error specifically antibiotic administration is not acceptable in the
nursing practice. Hence, it was important learning for me.
Analysis
(200 words)
One can understand importance of effective communication, by understanding its need and importance
either in the verbal or non-verbal form. Coping with certain conditions can be achieved by effective
communication. Both nurses and patients are crucial in effective communication because it is helpful in
providing and receiving information (Bramhall, 2014). It is evident that, communication is the only skill,
each nurse should possess. Most of the patients may have phobia about the hospitals. This phobia can
be effectively managed by the effective communication. Patient phobia not only affects treatment of
patient but also distract nurses from their nursing intervention. It would be difficult for the nurses to work
with positive attitude those patients with hospital phobia. Patients with hospital phobia may be anxious
about the communicating with nurses, hence nurses should initiate communication. I also did the same
thing (Andrews, 2011).
OSCE is the important platform for the disclosing medical error. It taught me, how a little negligence can
affect patient treatment. It may lead to more detoriation of the patient because medication error in the
antibiotic treatment can lead to uncontrolled spread of infection. Specifically, in this patient I should
have taken more care because patients with potential haemorrhage are more susceptible for the

Medical Surgical Nursing (Spring 2017)3
infection (Karthikeyan and Lalitha, 2013’; Brown et al., 2015).
Conclusion
(200 words)
In this OSCE, I understood that, if you have adequate skills, nervousness would not affect your nursing
procedure. Most important learning for me from OSCE, is that nurses should not display their
nervousness in front of the patients. On the other hand, nurses could build confidence in the patient
with effective communication. Medication error is the preventable error, however medication error in
case of antibiotic treatment can detoriate patient’s condition to very serious level. There should be
systematic procedure for the prevention of medication error. Double check—or even triple check—
procedures can be beneficial in the prevention medication error (Schwappach et al., 2016). Clinical
communication is important not only between patient and nurse but also among healthcare
professionals. My non-verbal communication with my evaluator helped me get confidence in performing
my procedure effectively (Newell and Jordan, 2015). OSCE gave me opportunity to me understand
both weakness like medication error and strength like communication. Both the things are useful for me
to improve my nursing practice. In future, I will take more precautions in administration of medications. I
will use communication skills as strength to handle patients with unacceptable behaviour (Chatswood et
al., 2013; Tollefson and Hillman, 2016).
Action Plan
(250 words)
I should implement Double check—or even triple check—procedures for the prevention of medication
error in the nursing practice. I should take more precaution in handling a patient with antibiotic
treatment. I also understood that, I should use both verbal and non-verbal communication in the nursing
practice. Implementation of these factors would be helpful for me to improve my nursing practice
(Tiziani, 2013).