Reflective Journal on Nursing Practice in Aged Care Unit

Running head: JOURNAL 1
ID number:
Unit code and title:
Title of assignment:
Name of Unit Coordinator:
Due date: Extension date
Word count:

JOURNAL 2
The reflective journal explores activities or experiences that are practice-based that lead to my
personal development and learning. It addresses three clinical practices as well as objectives
experienced and achieved during my nursing practice in an aged care unit of a community health
center.
The Gibbs reflective cycle will be the reflection model to be used in the study because it is a
well-renowned model in writing of reflective journals in nursing. Kolb's Learning Cycle
developed in 1988 is also a good model for nursing reflection cycles. Gibbs reflective cycle is
the best for the journals (Tesh & Kautz, 2017). The cycle reflects the process of how
individuals, organizations, and what teams do as well as understanding experiences and
modifying behavior (Kolb, 2014). Gibbs reflective cycle has six stages hence its uniqueness.
Professionals who typically embrace loung-lasting learning use Gibbs reflective model (Husebø,
O'Regan & Nestel, 2015).
The objectives that I focused to learn and active during the period were, adhering to clinical
hygiene standards, addressing medication to patients and seniority to workplace in nursing. All
activities aimed at achieving the objectives.
Incidences/ Issues
Objective: Adhering to clinical hygiene standards
Description
In one of my busy days during the learning contract time as a clinical nurse in the aged care unit,
I was told by one of the doctors in the multidisciplinary team to hand him gloves while he was
nursing a patients wound. During that time, I was also cleaning another patients wound. Due to
the busy work going on in the unit, I took them quickly and handed them to him. When the

JOURNAL 3
colleague started dressing the patients wound, I realized that I had picked the gloves without
cleaning my hands. I realized that I had not followed the hygienic measures that a nurse should
adhere. Hand hygiene is the most necessary procedure in the prevention of bacteria from the
environment to the patient or from one patient to another (Raymond, 2016).
Feeling/ Affect
I felt annoyed by the situation. I thought that I had failed in one of the vital areas nurses should
be keen to observe. I went directly to the nurse and explained to him about the mistake.
Analysis
As a student nurse, I was lacking the experience in handling hospital equipment hence that why I
committed the mistake. I felt that I should keep on reading materials concerning hospital safety
as well as ask my majors on each step I take.
Evaluation
At this time, I made a review on the hygienic issues in a clinical setting. Aronson et al. (2016),
argues that many healthcare infections originate from poor hygiene. My mentor encouraged me
to prepare a summary of my experience and my mitigation measure. It could help me to ensure
that no any other learning nurse would go through a similar mistake (Wolf, 2015).
Action Plan
I thought to use the SMART analogy to assess the achievement of the objective. I would also
consult my mentors in every act I do in the future (Jimenez et al., 2014). The SMART analogy
makes it easy to set specific, measurable, attainable, reliable and time-framed approaches to
realize purposeful objectives (Educational Business, 2016).

JOURNAL 4
Objective 2: Addressing Medication to Patients
Incidence and its Context
In placement during my studies, I worked in an aged care center, and I was assigned a mentor. In
the hospital, we worked as a team in addressing health issues for the aged. I was working under
supervision caring for a patient named Mr. XX assigned to my mentor. The name of the patient
is hidden to protect the privacy of the patient. Any disclosure of the patients will be a breach of
the patient confidentiality policies as outlined in the healthcare professional council and the
Nursing and Midwifery Council (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2017). My mentor was one of
the senior medical doctors in the health center and could attend many clients ago.
Mr. XX was suffering from throat cancer stage III. The patient also had complex conditions
before where he got diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes mellitus. He was very sick and
needed medical attention from time to time. For weeks, I observed that the client was missing his
drugs. My mentor instructed me to ensure that the patient takes his medications as prescribed by
the doctor. I made my efforts to provide that the client took medicine but all in vain, he
continued missing the drugs. At first, I felt guilty of informing my mentor about the situation of
the patient assigned to me. I found it difficult to explain to other members, but luckily my mentor
came and helped me out. My mentor told me that we had to hold a discussion with the client and
discuss the issues as well as explaining to the client about the effects of missing drugs to her
condition. Medications if not taken regularly, their level in the blood go too low to stop
pathogens (LeBlanc et al., 2015) efficiently.
After discussing with the patient as a team, he agreed to take his medicine. According to the
supervisor's examination of the client, he found that Mr. XX had mental problems originating