Nursing Reflection: Using Gibb’s Reflective Cycle for Work Performance

This nursing reflection paper discusses the use of Gibb’s reflective cycle for work performance. It includes a personal development plan, coping with workplace stressors, and a review process. The paper also covers the importance of continuing education for nursing professionals and the six basic rights of nursing.

Running head: NURSING REFLECTION
Nursing reflection
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
PDP development...................................................................................................................2
Reflection on work performance using Gibb’s reflective cycle.............................................2
Description.................................................................................................................................3
Feelings......................................................................................................................................3
Evaluation..................................................................................................................................4
Analysis......................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
Action plan.................................................................................................................................4
Review process.......................................................................................................................5
Coping with workplace stressors...........................................................................................6
References..............................................................................................................................7

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PDP development
Attributes Factors
Current skills Practical skills required for intensive care management, critical thinking ,
post-operative patient management
Skills to work on Therapeutic communication skills , building sense of ethics, documentation
skills
My goals:
 Short term
goals( interpe
rsonal
communicati
on)
 Medium
career goals
(developing a
sense of
nursing
ethics)
 Long term
career goals
(learning
handling and
management
of practical
scenario)
1-9 months 10-18 months 19-27 28-36 months
 
  
   
Resources In-house training sessions, nursing simulation practices.
Action plan Reflection upon self practising skills and re-enforcement upon the six
rights of nursing care
Personal development plan
(Source: author)
Reflection on work performance using Gibb’s reflective cycle
The Gibb’s reflective cycle could be used for reflection upon the current work place
practices and the loopholes associated with the same. The Gibb’s reflective cycle consists of
a number of parameters such as description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, and conclusion and
action plan. It can be used for understanding the feelings of others while working together in
a team. The reflective and shared work environment helps in improving the quality of care.

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Some of these have been used for evaluation of an exact clinical scenario and reflecting upon
the working of the nursing professionals.
Description
In my last placement, as a nursing student in the WE CARE hospital I had come
across a number of practical situations and scenario. Some of these have contributed
significantly in reshaping my performance as a clinical nurse. I had a vivid encounter during
one of mu clinical outings with a patient who was admitted due to hyperglyecemia as the
patient had encountered septic shock. On detailed inspection, it was found that the patient had
a number of co-morbid conditions such as depression, obesity, cardiac disorder. During the
hospital stay of the patient he reported restlessness and difficulty in sleeping. Hence, it was
diagnosed that the patient was suffering from acute anxiety disorder. As a nursing student,
my supervisor assigned me the duty of looking after a patient who complained of
restlessness. During assigning the duty, the supervisor failed to handle me all the caseloads
pertaining to the patient. Therefore, I had to depend upon the knowledge disseminated by
word of mouth. In order to relieve the condition of the patient I had administered an
oxezepam 100 mg to the patient based upon the instructions given to me by my supervisor the
other day during a similar clinical session. However, as a nursing student it was one of the
biggest mistakes committed by me, as it was a scheduled drug and could only be given under
expert supervision. The patient complained of chest pain and aggravated discomfort
immediately after that. On immediately following up the condition of the patient with the
doctor I got to know that since the patient was already suffering from cardiac issue, the
administration of oxezepam had further resulted in low blood pressure. As mentioned by
Douglas et al. (2014), cardiac complications could be worsened by low blood pressure.

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Feelings
Therefore, based upon such an incident I decided to take the responsibility of my
nursing care activities much more seriously. This incident brought me face to face with the
grave reality where a small negligence form the end of the nursing professional could have
resulted in the death of the patient. Hence, I started feeling guilty about the entire episode and
started feeling less confident about handling similar trying situations in the future.
Evaluation
From my clinical retrospection I found that I lacked the expertise for taking over cases
and handling them efficiently during shift change. In this context, I should have checked with
the past medical history of the patient once before the administration of the oxezepam.
However, I had only trusted the source of information provided by the nursed attending to the
patient. The only positive thing about the entire situation was that I could report in time and I
got sufficient help from few of my supervisors.
Analysis
From reflection upon the current situation, it could be deduced that continuing
education for the nursing professionals is beneficial as it helps in improving the quality of
care and preventing the occurrence of untoward incidents in an acute clinical setting
(Tobiano et al. 2016).
Conclusion
I believe I should have made that extra effort to inquire regarding the co-morbid
health conditions present in the patient. In this respect, a proper clinical handover should have
been conducted by me ensuring that I have collected all the necessary and the required
amount of information from the supervisor. Hence, a reinforcement of the nursing basics was

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required in cam help in management of the clinical scenario effectively (Milne and Adams
2015).
Action plan
In case such a situation rose again I would better focus upon the documentation
process for monitoring of the clinical vital signs before administration of the drug to the
patient. In context of any doubt, I will need to discuss the vital signs with the supervisor as
well as consider the complications that may arise while carrying out the nursing care
interventions and plan. I should also study extensively regrading the diseases and patho-
physiology as it will help me in keeping the complications in mind while administering the
medicines, which further helps in avoiding clinical risks. As mentioned by Lake et al.
(2016), providing sufficient training to the nursing professionals and teaching them
regarding the side effects of the medications could check the rate of untoward clinical
incidents.
Some of the steps which could take by me over here are:
 Preparing a professional development plan based upon my medium, short and long
term goals
 Learn effective documentation techniques as the note taking would help me in
management of a practical scenario
 Achieve the entire career goals within a time frame of 6 months to 1 year.
Review process
The provided case study could be reviewed over here in order to understand the
situation prevalent within an acute medical care ward and the bios psychosocial framework
which affects the performance of a nursing professional. In this respect, the nurse had given

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wrong doses of medication to the patient. The patient just returned from the post –anaesthesia
department with a low respiratory rate accompanied by low blood pressure. Naloxone was to
be given to the patient in doses of 0.2 mg intravenously. The vial had been marked 2
milligrams per 1 ml. However, by mistake the nurse had injected the entire 1 ml vial to the
patient. This could have led to lethal consequences including the death of the patient.
Lily had been unable in maintaining an effective work life balance. She was also a
mother and had a bad night’s sleep where her baby has kept her mostly awake. Hence, the
fatigued condition had disturbed her mental sanity, as a result she committed mistake by
giving an overdose of channels IV medication to the patient. Hence, a number of factors
within the work environment may have triggered the incident such as lack of strong policies.
Additionally, the organization failed to revive performance and skills regularly leading to the
service gaps (Lavin et al. 2015).
The present error could be reflected upon by the nursing professionals for making the
work environment more conducive. It could be done by a number of methods such as
continuing professional education of the practising nurse. As commented by Holland (2017),
occasional review on the performance of the practising nurse can help in improving the
quality of the support and care service provided. Moreover, practical in-house sessions could
further help in enhancing the professional standards of practise (Cannaerts et al. 2014).
The only positive aspect of the work environment was that they were extremely quick
and responsive in dealing with the patient. Additionally, lily had been quick in reporting to
the doctor in charge regarding the condition of the patient and had monitored for the vital
signs of the patient which prevented any further lethal consequences. Hence, effective
alertness depicted on the sides of the healthcare professionals have been seen to be beneficial
in dealing with the clinical challenges (Vikstrom et al. 2014).

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Form the experience the nursing staffs could learn regarding the six basic rights of
nursing which would help them in preventing any future errors such as- right patient, right
time, right medication, right route, right dose and documentation.
Coping with workplace stressors
There are a number of stressors which could affect nursing care practices such as lack
of professional knowledge and skill, stress from assignments and workload and stress from
daily life. As mentioned by Peter (2016), stress in practising effectively could arise due to
the lack o knowledge. Similarly, chaotic personal life could be equally disrupting for a
nursing professional.
In order to deal with the stressors within a cute clinical set up a number of strategies
could be undertaken such as enrolling in nursing continuing education programs. Some of
these programs could a value to the skills possessed by the nursing professionals. As
mentioned by Morley et al. (2014), one possessing effective skills have been seen to better
cope up with stressful situations. Similarly, personal life issues could be an equally engaging
and distractive. Hence, enrolment in employee counselling sessions could help in coping up
with the work related stress.

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References
Cannaerts, N., Gastmans, C. and Casterlé, B.D.D., 2014. Contribution of ethics education to
the ethical competence of nursing students: educators’ and students’ perceptions. Nursing
ethics, 21(8), pp.861-878.
Douglas, M.K., Rosenkoetter, M., Pacquiao, D.F., Callister, L.C., Hattar-Pollara, M.,
Lauderdale, J., Milstead, J., Nardi, D. and Purnell, L., 2014. Guidelines for implementing
culturally competent nursing care. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 25(2), pp.109-121.
Holland, K., 2017. Cultural awareness in nursing and health care: an introductory text.
London: CRC Press, pp.122-145.
Lake, E.T., Hallowell, S.G., Kutney-Lee, A., Hatfield, L.A., Del Guidice, M., Boxer, B.,
Ellis, L.N., Verica, L. and Aiken, L.H., 2016. Higher quality of care and patient safety
associated with better NICU work environments. Journal of nursing care quality, 31(1), p.24.
Lavin, M.A., Harper, E. and Barr, N., 2015. Health information technology, patient safety,
and professional nursing care documentation in acute care settings. Online J Issues
Nurs, 20(6), pp.75-89.
Milne, A. and Adams, A., 2015. Enhancing critical reflection amongst social work students:
The contribution of an experiential learning group in care homes for older people. Social
Work Education, 34(1), pp.74-90.
Morley, J.E., Caplan, G., Cesari, M., Dong, B., Flaherty, J.H., Grossberg, G.T., Holmerova,
I., Katz, P.R., Koopmans, R., Little, M.O. and Martin, F., 2014. International survey of
nursing home research priorities. Journal of the American Medical Directors
Association, 15(5), pp.309-312.

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Peter, E., 2016. The politicization of ethical knowledge: feminist ethics as a basis for home
care nursing research. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 32(2), pp.212-312.
Tobiano, G., Bucknall, T., Marshall, A., Guinane, J. and Chaboyer, W., 2016. Patients’
perceptions of participation in nursing care on medical wards. Scandinavian journal of caring
sciences, 30(2), pp.260-270.
Vikstrom, S., Sandman, P.O., Stenwall, E., Boström, A.M., Saarnio, L., Kindblom, K.,
Edvardsson, D. and Borell, L., 2015. A model for implementing guidelines for person-
centered care in a nursing home setting. International psychogeriatrics, 27(1), pp.49-59.