Assignment on Nursing Reflection and Professional Practice

Running head: NURSING REFLECTION AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
NURSING REFLECTION AND PROFESSIONAL PRATICE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

Introduction
In addition to engagement in patient centered therapeutic relationships with patients and
families, nurses are also required to engage in professional conversations and communication
practices with various inter-disciplinary healthcare professionals. Medical officers of any
organization comprise of a hospital’s supervising doctors and thus need comprehensive patient
details from nurses to ensure deliverance of robust patient treatments (Chua et al., 2020). The
following paper will be based on a reflection of scope of personal as well as professional
improvement with regards to opening conversations with medical officers during discussion of
abnormal patient parameters. This reflective paper will also briefly expound upon the key
outcomes acquired from this self-evaluation practice and the strategies which will be considered
with regards to future professional practice.
Personal and Professional Self-Reflection
Description: One of my first experiences with engaging in a conversation with a medical
officer was during my previous clinical placement as a graduate nurse where I was assigned to
the oncology department. Under the supervision of my supervisor – a Registered Nurse – I was
assigned to a 40 year old woman with breast cancer who was undergoing chemotherapy. In
addition to being entrusted with responsibilities of preparing and managing the daily handover,
assessments, hygiene and self-care requirements of the patient, I was also required to
communicate daily screening results and prevalence of any progression or deterioration to my
supervisor, who in turn, would evaluate my performance. However, it was observed that the
patient was heavily experiencing cachexia in response to the treatment and was found to
demonstrate a number of abnormal clinical observations like excessive loss, bleeding and
thickening of breast tissue. There thus, arose a need to transfer her to another healthcare
organization specializing on cancer treatment. To my surprise, my supervisor requested me to
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NURSING REFLECTION AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

communicate these findings to one of the medical officers (MO) of the organization – a reputed
oncologist, regarding these clinical observations and the need for her transfer. I was extremely
nervous and during the conversation I completely fumbled and seemed to lose track of my
words. The MO was however kind enough to understand that I was new and persuaded me to
calm down and take my time. While I managed to recover my composure and communicate all
the necessary details, I did encounter a range of thoughts and feelings during this situation.
Feelings: One of the most prominent feelings which I encountered was nervous. I was
indeed extremely nervous regarding how to present the clinical observation. However, after
closely being mindful and reflective of my own personal thoughts, I came to the conclusion that
my main cause of fear was a personal expectation that I must present myself to the MO with
professionalism and credibility. The inability to the same and instead fumble initially also
contributed my feelings of regret, guilt and shame after the incidence. Indeed, it has been
evidenced by Khamisa, Peltzer, Ilic and Oldenburg (2017), that personal expectations of learning
and feeling of duty towards one’s responsibility can often aggravate into unrealistic goals and
thus result in fear and guilt. This experience thus demonstrated that the need to attend to nursing
professional standards of maintaining professional and therapeutic communications with
healthcare professionals beyond my scope of practice were important to me and was an aspect I
wanted to improve upon during my transition to professional practice.
Another key thought and feeling which I encountered was the realization that empathy
and reassurance from the MO assisted me to complete my clinical observation handover
effectively. Indeed, it has been evidenced by Choi, Lee and Kim (2019), that interpersonal
communication skills like empathy largely assists in generating meaningful and comprehensive
professional relationships across patients as well as across healthcare professionals. Thus, this
experience facilitated my understanding that maintaining sound interpersonal and empathetic
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NURSING REFLECTION AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE