Nursing Professional Experience Placement Program

The nursing professional experience placement (PEP) program allows us students to gain an opportunity in order to put into practice the newly acquired skills and behaviors along with the use of the evidence based interventions for the purpose of implementing patient education, nursing education and quality improvement.

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

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The nursing professional experience placement (PEP) program allows us students to gain
an opportunity in order to put into practice the newly acquired skills and behaviors along with
the use of the evidence based interventions for the purpose of implementing patient education,
nursing education and quality improvement (Bach and Grant 2015). Using the Discroll method,
the reflection is stated in the following paper.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
While my PEP program I was working in a surgical ward. There was Mr. X who was 65
years old and had been diagnosed with an inoperable cancer. The patient was undergoing
uncontrolled pain, while some relief was being provided through chemotherapy. The patient was
unable to move about by himself or to stand up or sit down. Finding his difficultly to move
about, I offered him coffee and other help. The first language of the patient not being English, he
had some difficulty in understanding, therefore I tried to use body language and other signs and
gestures. These are form of non-verbal communication. Luckily Mr. X could comprehend my
expressions and understood that I was offering him assistance. I tried to maintain my contact
with him throughout. I tried to communicate in the best possible way. I touched his shoulders
and raised my tone a bot in order to make sure that he was able to hear my voice. Through this I
realized that I was able to improve my communication skills, especially in non-verbal
communication, which I was lacking earlier. I feel that this interaction was beneficial for me
since it helped me to improve my communication and interpersonal skills both in verbal and non-
verbal communication (Grant and Goodman 2018). In future if such is required I will ensure that
I am well prepared to deal with patients who are not able to communicate properly.

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Contribute to a safe and healthy working environment.
Clinical governance helps to improve the standards of clinical practice. While my
placement experience in the third year of nursing course, my role was to ensure that the patients
receive maximum support and care from the hospital services. In order to ensure a safe and
healthy working environment, the first point that should be ensured is that there should be a
constant learning. There is also a restorative function that is followed for supporting the patients
and also the co-workers (Kirwan, Matthews and Scott 2013). While working in the ward, it was
required of me to manage the risks of the health care facility so as to maintain the safety of the
environment. The patients usually have greater expectations regarding the provision of
healthcare these days. Therefore it is very important for us to take these cases seriously and does
not allow negligence to pop up. Often negligence poses a great threat to the health institutions
therefore it is our responsibility to uphold our professional integrity so that the health entity is
able to manage its risks (Ammouri et al. 2015).
While I was caring for the patients, there were instances where there were several risks in
providing care to the patient, however still I focused on delivering a patient- focused care. I
realized that in order to maintain safety it was important for me to adapt to the prevailing
situations and to implement these changes in the activities of the ward of the healthcare unit.
Through this I was able to assure the patient as well as the other members of the nursing staff
that the safety of the working environment was maintained.
Ability to work under pressure, as expected for a Graduate Entry Registered Nurse

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During the coursework when I began my clinical experiment, I stared working in a
geriatric nursing unit. When the program started I was quite excited however gradually I started
dealing with real problems. I had to practice speaking to the patients without using the medical
terminology and had to make them understand their medications and diagnosis and also educate
them about their condition. I realized that I had only seen a small fraction of what the realities
are actually in nursing care. I felt a lot under pressure and kept on comparing myself with my
peers. Although I tried hard not to, I often found myself comparing my knowledge and clinical
skills with that of the other students. It often occurred to me that I did not know as much as they
do, which made me feel that I was behind. However later, through the help of my clinical
instructor I was able to reach pout of my comfort zone and even perform new tasks that gave me
more confidence. Now I kept on reminding myself that the whole aim of the PEP was to acquire
more knowledge and to become better. I realized that it was alright to make mistakes which
helped me to learn new things and become a better professional.

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References
Ammouri, A.A., Tailakh, A.K., Muliira, J.K., Geethakrishnan, R. and Al Kindi, S.N., 2015.
Patient safety culture among nurses. International nursing review, 62(1), pp.102-110.
Bach, S. and Grant, A., 2015. Communication and interpersonal skills in nursing. Learning
Matters.
Grant, A. and Goodman, B., 2018. Communication and Interpersonal Skills in Nursing. Learning
Matters.
Kirwan, M., Matthews, A. and Scott, P.A., 2013. The impact of the work environment of nurses
on patient safety outcomes: a multi-level modelling approach. International journal of nursing
studies, 50(2), pp.253-263.
McCaughey, D., DelliFraine, J.L., McGhan, G. and Bruning, N.S., 2013. The negative effects of
workplace injury and illness on workplace safety climate perceptions and health care worker
outcomes. Safety science, 51(1), pp.138-147.
Smeulers, M., Onderwater, A.T., van Zwieten, M.C. and Vermeulen, H., 2014. Nurses'
experiences and perspectives on medication safety practices: an explorative qualitative
study. Journal of nursing management, 22(3), pp.276-285.
Robinson, B.K. and Dearmon, V., 2013. Evidence-based nursing education: Effective use of
instructional design and simulated learning environments to enhance knowledge transfer in
undergraduate nursing students. Journal of Professional Nursing, 29(4), pp.203-209.

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White, K.M., Dudley-Brown, S. and Terhaar, M.F. eds., 2016. Translation of evidence into
nursing and health care. Springer Publishing Company.