NRSG267 Part C: Reflective Assignment - Gibbs Reflective Cycle

This reflective assignment uses the Gibbs reflective cycle to reflect on the simulation resilience scenario. It covers the importance of teamwork, feedback, communication, and infection prevention practices in nursing.

NRSG267 Part C: Reflective Assignment
Description
During the simulation, five students selected by the tutor as nurses. There was one patient, and the
rest of the students were to give feedback. The patient was a lady who had a hospital-acquired
COPD. She was anxious and missed her family. She was also very concerned about the nurse and
student nurses performing hand hygiene and ensuring the use of clean equipment to prevent
infection. We had to perform vitals sign as student nurses; however, the patient felt irritated and
kept on making sure that we sanitize our hand before that procedure. She even insisted that she
want to talk to the nurse. This reflection will, therefore, use the Gibbs reflective cycle (Husebø,
O'Regan, & Nestel, 2015) to reflect on the simulation resilience scenario.
Feelings
I felt surprised during the scenario since the patient was so much concerned with infection
prevention that she had to see it being done to relay her fears. I kept thinking that this was going to
make the student nurses anxious while performing any procedure on the patient. Moreover, I felt
that the patient had lost trust in nurses such that he had to see it being done. Nevertheless, I
thought that the scenario would teach me to be careful and practice infection prevention more
accurately while attending to other patients in future.
Evaluation
The simulation was an excellent experience. Almost everything went on smoothly. All the
procedures were performed according to the protocols that need to be observed. I was also able to
react to the situation that arises. For example, the patient wanted to talk to the nurse while the
nurse was away, and I was able to handle the situation by letting her know that the nurse was away
and made her comfortable. Therapeutic communication is essential in the patient journey to
recovery (Weber, & Farrell, 2016); hence, I saw the need to improve my communication skills. The
patient got irritated with student nurses and did not want to talk to someone, which was as a result
of poor communication. There is also a need to explain every procedure to the patient before
performing them (Malamed, 2017), and it was terrible that we failed to do so. The patient was
missing her family and kept talking about her son. This indicated that the family should be involved
in the care of a patient toachieve better recovery. We also failed in alleviating the patient anxiety
since she kept being anxious about acquiring hospital infection. According to Sodhi, Sharma, & Kaur,
(2015), proper documentation and handover are also necessary for nursing since it helps the nurse
understand and manage the patient accordingly. For example, it was not good that the handover did
not bring out the fact that the patient was micro phobic.
Analysis
The fact that the patient was open and could speak up how she feels and how she was to be handled
made the event more fruitful. This emphasizes the fact that the patient should always be
encouraged to inform the nurse or physician how he or she feels so that proper action can be taken
promptly. The patient was not comfortable with the surrounding environment, which made her
irritable. Patient comfort should always be ensured, and this can be achieved through psychological

NRSG267 Part C: Reflective Assignment
support. This aids patient recovery. Proper infection prevention practices, such as proper hand
hygiene should also be performed before and after handling any patient or the surrounding
environment (Ariyaratne et al., 2015). The healthcare staffs and student nurses should also be
educated and reminded of the importance of such practices so that infections can be minimized
while taking care of the patients.
Moreover, the patient and visitors should also be taught on proper handwashing so that infections
can be prevented from spreading. Teamwork is also essential when taking care of the patient. This
ensures that better management is achieved. I learnt that it is through teamwork that more
priorities of care are obtained. Therefore both teamwork and collaborative management should be
encouraged.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the simulation has greatly impacted my outlook. I have been able to appreciate the
importance of teamwork while taking care of a patient. I have also learnt that feedback helps us to
be able to identify our weak areas so that we can rectify them for better management in future.
Moreover, I have also been able to know that proper communication is vital in making the patient
comfortable while providing care. This is because engaging the client makes her feel involved in her
management and therefore, will cooperate fully. Therefore, should I be faced with a similar situation
in future I will confidently handle it better?
Action plan
I will implement the lessons learnt in the simulation while taking care of patients that I will come
across in future. I will ensure that I seek further clarification and knowledge on the parts that I did
not perform. This will help me polish upon those parts so that I do not repeat the same mistakes. I
will also read more literature on therapeutic communication in order to improve my communication
skills. In so doing, I’m quite confident that I will be able to provide better care to patients in future.

NRSG267 Part C: Reflective Assignment
References
Ariyaratne, M. H. J. D., Gunasekara, T. D. C. P., Weerasekara, M. M., Kottahachchi, J., Kudavidanage,
B. P., & Fernando, S. S. N. (2015). Knowledge, attitudes and practices of hand hygiene among
final year medical and nursing students at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
Husebø, S. E., O'Regan, S., & Nestel, D. (2015). Reflective practice and its role in simulation. Clinical
Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), 368-375.
Malamed, S. F. (2017). Sedation-E-Book: A Guide to Patient Management. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Sodhi, J. K., Sharma, K., & Kaur, J. (2015). Development of Patient Handover Documentation Tool for
Staff Nurses using the Modified Delphi Technique. International Journal of Nursing
Education, 7(2), 165-169.
Weber, K., & Farrell, T. (2016). Developing therapeutic communication skills: Integration of
standardized client simulation in an associate degree nursing program.