Nursing NMBA Reflective Essay 2022

Running head: REFLECTION
Nursing reflective essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

REFLECTION1
Overview of reflection
This essay will reflect on a nursing scenario that had been encountered during clinical
placement at a hospital, and will elaborate on the incident from a legal perspective. The essay
will elucidate the clinical situation by using the reflective model proposed by Driscoll and
will also utilise the lessons learnt from the circumstance. While describing the nursing
scenario the essay will also provide an exhaustive explanation for the standards of ethics that
need to be followed in such situations, and will also highlight the implications of such event
to nursing practice. It has often been found that reflecting on the daily experiences helps in
the delivery of enhanced nursing care. Therefore, the ethical considerations discussed in the
essay will also provide a sound understanding of the ethico-legal complications that are
encountered in nursing practice.
What?
At the time of my first nursing placement at a suburban hospital, I had been entitled
with the responsibility of attending the geriatric patients who had been admitted to the
hospital. The geriatric hospital ward is specifically designed for aged patients. Acute care
spaces were present in the hospital for the elderly people and multidisciplinary team
approaches were applied for improving management of their health ailments. While all
patients were aged and suffered from different types of chronic disorders, I was asked to look
after an octogenarian male, patient A, aged 86 years. I found that the patient refused all kinds
of food and was hardly able to eat anything during the course of his stay at the hospital. It has
often been found that reasons behind refusing to drink or eat among older patients might
encompass a plethora of physiological changes that are correlated with aging, besides other
social, mental and environmental factors (Peterson 2015).

REFLECTION2
Owing to the fact that the patient A was continuously refusing any kind of food
consumption, his nutritional needs were not being met and it was becoming difficult to treat
his deteriorating health condition. I tried to encourage him several times to consume his food
and drinks at regular intervals, however failed to succeed. On asking my supervisor what I
should do to address this problem, I was suggested to perform forceful feeding. According to
Bara et al. (2017) his practice generally encompasses the act of feeding a human against will.
I initially tried to question my supervisor about the procedure since I was well aware of the
fact that forceful feeding often results in irritation and exhaustion of the patients. However,
on her repeated instructions, I forced the patient A to eat his food. While adorning the role of
a nursing professional, soon after the incident, I realised that I should not have followed the
order of my supervisor, and was wrong in forcing the patient to eat, and regretted my
decision.
So what?
Although I followed the instructions that had been provided by my supervisor about
force feeding the patient, when he refused consumption of food, during reflection, I was
quick to realise that my actions were not ethically justified and I must have taken into
consideration the fact that patient safety and autonomy forms a core component of nursing
practice (Grace 2017). According to the National Competency Standard of Registered Nurse,
it is imperative for registered nurses to effectively conduct their responsibilities and duties in
a manner that they are able to deliver excellent quality of care and also demonstrate
competency in maintaining the ethical obligations of nursing profession (NMBA 2016). I
faced an ethical dilemma on thinking about my actions in the aforementioned situation. This
can be accredited to the fact that my role and responsibility as a nursing professional is not
merely restricted to delivering treatment to patients, but also calls for the need of presenting
myself ethically in my practice. While adorning the role of a nursing professional, we have to