Importance of Reflective Journaling in Nursing

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Part B
Importance of reflective journaling in the profession of nursing
Reflective journaling is a term that normally refers to the documentation of the ideas,
personal thoughts, and perceptions through writing. Reflective journaling is often promoted
within the education realm particularly among the students (Boud, Keogh & Walker, 2013).
Reflective journaling can be an important way for mapping the progress of the nurses and their
experiences in the nursing education as well as in the career. Keeping a nursing reflective journal
helps to keep the nurses more focused ad draw out some valuable insights to the areas that
requires improvement. Reflection further helps the nurses to think critically for assessing the
situation more confidently and make better decisions for the patient (Silvia,Valerio & Lorenza,
2013).
In this part I will use Rolfe’s reflective cycle for analysing the content of my reflective
journal.
What?
During my placement as a trained nurse I was placed in a geriatric ward, where I came up
with the many experiences and learnings which I guess has impacted on my personal values and
feelings and will also impact upon my future professional practice. While working in the ward I
came up with some issues, which I believe needs amendments and while reflecting on my own
journal, I found that I had several flaws that needs to be corrected in order to provide a patient

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centred care. Analysing the journal, the content can be divided in to several themes. In this
reflective paper I will only discuss about the two most important themes that has come up from
the reflection. On day 2, I mentioned that I met a dignified women with dementia, who had been
put under restraint as she had the habit of wandering around. I felt sorry to see a lady on
restraints. However, the patients was unlocked based on my words. Right after some time, it was
found that the lady had actually tried to go outside has eventually suffered from a fall.
Another important theme that I have noticed is the communication within the clients and
the therapist, which I had missed for a couple of times. I had already mentioned, that I had been
looking after an adolescent women. At one instant, while I approached the patient for taking the
blood samples, I forgot to ask for the consent of the patient before touching her to take the vital
signs. Apart from this there are some professional etiquettes like the greeting the patient, while
carrying out an invasive procedure. This was brought to notice by one of my peers.
So what ?
I had instructed the health care workers to remove the restrain from the elderly patients. I
can only justify myself by the facts that I had always learnt, the putting restraints reduces the
quality of life of people suffering from neurodegenerative disease. Use of the of physical
restrains in older adults has been associated with poor outcomes, functional decline and
decreased peripheral circulation, cardiovascular stress, pressure ulcers, muscular atrophy ,
infections, social isolations and psychiatry morbidity (Chadwick & Gallagher, 2016). Patients
might try to resist the care as they feel lost or afraid. This perception has actually led me to
release the patients from the restraint. However, it not that the situation will always be according
to our will. The patient tried to move away from the ward and suffered from a fall, which would

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otherwise could have been prevented. However, I could have also approached my mentor before
instructing the health care workers.
Throughout my nursing study , I had gone through all the nursing ethics that the nurses
wishes to uphold for providing a patient centred care, where there was a special module where
we had learnt about culturally safe care and how they could be associated with better health care
outcomes for the patients with different ethnic minorities (Kim, Han & Kim, 2015). In spite of
this, I got so nervous that I failed to stick to my learning. An open conversation, provision of a
non-hostile and friendly environment and active listening are of the important aspects for
provision of a culturally safe care (Smebye, Kirkevold, & Engedal, 2016).
So what?
Taking lesson from this incidence, I ensured that I would not take any decisions out of
haste. Paternalism and providing autonomy to patient depends upon the severity of the patient.
Not all the persons suffering from dementia are fully aware of the risks involved (Chadwick &
Gallagher, 2016). I had been guided by the principle if beneficence, which is the primary
obligation in the health care sector and is a positive duty to act for the benefit of the others and to
promote wellbeing and not just merely avoid harm to the patient (Betancourt, Corbett &
Bondaryk, 2014). However, I have learnt that I would clearly thin about the pros and cons of my
actions. I intend to indulge myself in evidence based learning and go through the online cases
studies that would help me to develop my critical thinking skills and take correct decisions.
I intend to increase my communication skills by mixing with the patients and taking
regular feedback from my peers. I would also increase my confidence level for ensuring effective
communication. I have understood that patient listening, paying attention to the patient, empathy