Nursing Ethical Values Discussion 2022

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NURSING
Introduction
Ethical values are highly crucial for any healthcare providers. The focus concerns to the
right as well as wrong of actions and thus bound the decision-making process of a health care
service user, determining the ultimate consequences of those actions. Reflection while
conducting nursing is highly crucial factor that attribute for the development of ethical, critical,
autonomous and advanced practitioners. Amongst a good number of reflective models, the
Driscoll’s reflective model can be considered as an effective framework that helps nurses to
enhance their practise while providing best patient based approach. In the following paragraph, I
will reflect on of my experience while handling needle during the clinical placement on my PEP
in an Urban hospital with the help of the Dricoll’s reflective cycle.
Discussion
What?
While working on my PEP (Professional Experience Placement) in a busy Urban
Hospital as my first placement, during my practice unit, I had been given the responsibility of
providing insulin through injection to a healthcare service user. In my practice unit, I have been
taught by my lecturer that needles after giving an injection should never be recapped. Instead it
should be placed in a kidney dish and disposed directly from the dish to a designated sharp
container. During my PEP, I was successfully able to inject insulin. However, while dispose the
needle, I notice that I had not brought a kidney dish to the bedside. As a result I stated panicking
since I was not aware of the location of closest sharp container. The RN with whom I was pared
with was quite critical in case her order was not followed. She instructed me to recap the needle.
However while I refused, she screamed at me to do the same. I got anxious and destressed and as

2NURSING
a result of this, while trying to recapping the needle, I accidentally punctured the skin of my
thumb while recapping the needle. As a result of this, the RN became furious and she involved
the patient in the situation and stated a sample of his blood will be taken in order to test for any
blood borne diseases transmitted by me.
So What?
The strictness and critical behavior of the RN with whom I was pared made me a little
anxious initially. While, given the responsibility of giving insulin injection to the patient, I was
highly confident and have done it successfully. But, when I noticed that I have forgotten to bring
the Kidney dish where the used needle needed to be disposed, I started panicking. At that time, I
became extremely nervous and perplexed. As a nurse, I am supposed to bring all the necessary
utensils with me before giving injection to the patient. My inability to perform this, made me
ethically vulnerable. According to The pharmacy Guidelines of Australia (2019), needles after
usage should be handled very carefully and should never be disposed in a general waste bag or
recapped (Australian Government Department of Health. 2019). Instead it should be disposed in
a specialized disposal container that is meant specifically for sharp objects (Johnson, Sanchez
and Zheng 2016). Hence, at that point of time, I was highly bewildered about my next course of
action. Since, the place was completely new for me, I was unaware of the location the sharp
disposal container. My nervous expression was noticed by the RN a d soon I was instructed to
recap the needle. This had put me into ethical complexity. As per the Australian Government
Department of health (2019), it is unethical to recap a syringe after blood has been drawn with
the same. I was well aware of the fact that that used needles should be eliminated instead of
recapped. Hence while being instructed by the RN to recap the needle, I initially refused initially.
This is because, as per the The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) (2019),