Life Crisis Reflection and Annotated Bibliography

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Part 1: Introduction and Life Crisis Case (500 words)
The respective essay is a reflective assignment as well as an annotated bibliography based on the
theme “life crisis”. The reflection is based upon my life crisis which I have gone through in my
professional life and the first half of the work is my reflection. In the second half of the paper, I
have provided with ten bibliography or journals which talks about nursing practice, management
and profession deeply and thoroughly.
I have been working as a palliative care giver and a specialist for almost five years in a reputed
hospital in Australia. The patients requiring palliative care had satisfying experience with me.
However, during my internship as a palliative care giver, I happened to experience a case of life
crisis. Mrs. Brown, who was a chronic bronchitis patient, had been admitted to palliative care unit
lately after she was taken out from the Intensive Care Unit. Throughout her stay in the palliative
care unit, she had shown signs of loss of appetite and changes in her urinary and bowel movement
where she frequently urinated and excreted, sometimes on bed itself. The most disturbing sign
which she showed was her delirium because of potassium-sodium imbalance which led her speak
obscurely in her sleep. However, the doctor-in-charge and the other palliative care team along with
me made every attempt to keep her potassium-sodium balanced by providing her with requisite
drugs for electrolyte balance in her body. As the days passed, Mrs. Brown became little weak and
often met with fever, unnecessary body ache and common cold. However, it was unfortunate that
she was sometimes neglected by the nurses and the palliative care team because she was an aged,
non English speaking woman from Torres Strait Island rural background and was economically not
feasible to get premium palliative care. The inherent racism and sexism in Australian health care
arena was, unfortunately, the reason behind the increasing illness of Mrs. Brown. As Mrs. Brown’s
son came to visit her in the unit, she complained about negligence of the nurses as she was
suffering from mild body pain and headache. Her son provided her with an aspirin. Since Mrs.
Brown’s kidney had been having trouble lately, the doze of aspirin turned into an obnoxious affair
NUR312Assessment Task 1

for her and she started having tremendous pain in her lower abdomen. She also experienced over-
swelling of her hands, feet and legs and an acute shortness of breath for a long time which made
her utterly panic stricken. As she was tremendously panic stricken, she began to feel nauseatic ad
vomited for quite a long time and frequently. As I was reported by the doctor-in-charge to
immediately attend the patient, I went there only to see that she had been in tears with emotional
distress and fear of her life. Mrs. Brown, who was big built, could bare the pain and physical
distress she experienced earlier but this time, when I went to provide her with anesthesia, she
fainted by glancing at the syringe, which made me understand that she had become psychologically
weak and has no hope to continue her life. She was again taken into the Critical Care Unit where
she was treated with proper medication and attention. I felt utterly disgusted at the inherent sexism
and racism in the health care centers of Australia where “equity” which means fair allocation of
medical resources without discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity and economic background
and “rights” which echoed equal opportunity to achieve optimal health (according to Social Justice
Principles) was not provided to her initially. However, after an argument with the management, the
desired care giving was provided to her by not judging her in terms of her ethnicity and economic
condition. She had been reacting positively after proper treatment.
Part 2: Citations and annotations (1500 words)
Citation 1:
Freeman, T., Edwards, T., Baum, F., Lawless, A., Jolley, G., Javanparast, S. and Francis, T., 2014.
Cultural respect strategies in Australian Aboriginal primary health care services: beyond education
and training of practitioners. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 38(4), pp.355-
361.
Social justice principle- The respective paper is relevant to the “equity” of social justice principle
of healthcare of Australia as it encompasses the standards of healthcare services to the aboriginals
and the indigenous marginalized communities of Australia, providing details about the positive as
well as the negative aspects of healthcare provided to them.
NUR312Assessment Task 1

The respective article “Cultural respect strategies in Australian Aboriginal primary health care
services: beyond education and training of practitioners” is an introspection, analysis and
interpretation of the health-service-level strategies for culturally respectful care for the aboriginal
Torres Strait Islanders of Australia, who are the most marginalized community of the country.
With the help of two case studies, one taken at aboriginal community controlled healthcare center
and one state government managed primary health care service, the outcome that was found was
positive achievement of cultural respect in both the cases. However, certain barriers included
communication difficulties and subtle subconscious racism. However, it is concluded that service
level justice had been necessary to achieve cultural respect.
The respective paper is relevant to my nursing practice because it has encompassed the issue of
healthcare service provided in Australia to the marginalized sections of people in Australia, the
Torres Strait Islanders. As I work as a health care practitioner, I come across different people from
different communities of Australia and with the help of the respective article, I would be able to
understand the healthcare service status of the indigenous community of the nation and provide
them the respective care they are entitled to.
Citation 2:
Freeman, T., Edwards, T., Baum, F., Lawless, A., Jolley, G., Javanparast, S. and Francis, T., 2014.
Cultural respect strategies in Australian Aboriginal primary health care services: beyond education
and training of practitioners. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 38(4), pp.355-
361.
Social justice principle- The respective paper is relevant to the “equity” of social justice principle
of healthcare of Australia as it encompasses the standards of healthcare services to the aboriginals
and the indigenous marginalized communities of Australia, providing details about the positive as
well as the negative aspects of healthcare provided to them.
The respective article “Cultural respect strategies in Australian Aboriginal primary health care
services: beyond education and training of practitioners” is an introspection, analysis and
interpretation of the health-service-level strategies for culturally respectful care for the aboriginal
NUR312Assessment Task 1