Reflection on Palliative Care: A Nursing Student's Experience

Running head: REFLECTION ON PALLIATIVE CARE
Reflection on palliative care
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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REFLECTION ON PALLIATIVE CARE
Introduction:
Reflection can be utilized as one of the most potent tools for improving quality and
competence when considering the palliative nursing practice. This assignment will utilize the
Gibbs reflection tool to describe the placement experience that I have attained as a student nurse
in the palliative ward and how it has helped me develop my competence and skills. My reflection
assignment will focus on the placement experience I have had this year. In November I had been
given the opportunity to have a placement experience in the palliative care unit and this has been
my first encounter with a terminally ill patient. Hence, it had been a great opportunity for me to
understand my skills and competence and discover my weaknesses or limitations so that I can
focus on improving it.
Description:
Reflection has been described by the Gibbs as the process of learning by doing, as it
provides the nursing professional with the opportunity to reflect on their own practice standards
and competence and skills (Jayatilleke & Mackie, 2013). As a nursing student, I had been given
the opportunity to assist in caring for a 65 year old woman suffering with the last stage of
lymphoblastic leukaemia. The confidential details of the patient will not be disclosed for the sake
of privacy, although for the reflection I call the patient by the name of Jane. Jane had been in the
health care facility for the past few months and the impact of leukaemia and the burdening
treatment has had a substantial impact on the psychosocial health and well-being of the patient.
It has to be mentioned in this account that cancer diagnosis and the subsequent treatment can
have a life altering impact on the patient’s perception of health and life in general (Ferrell, Coyle
& Paice, 2014). The impending death also affects the will to struggle anymore for the patient. In

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REFLECTION ON PALLIATIVE CARE
this case the patients had been suffering from acute pain and wanted to be relieved from the pain
by any means possible. Although her family was not agreeing with the intravenous morphine
therapy intended to use for the analgesia, especially her son. Her son Jake was not agreeing for
his mother to be put on such opioid based analgesics and wanted some other alternative pain
relieving techniques to be employed for his mother. I would like to mention in this context that
the family spent a prolonged amount of time arguing with the entire health care staff and denying
the pain management that Jane needed desperately. The doctors and the senior nurses were all
trying to explain to Jake that being in the advanced stage of the cancer the only available option
for Jane is the opioid based analgesics. Although, the rest of her distant family agree to the
analgesic treatment, her son was still adamant about the treatment required from the patient and
him being the next of kin of the patient, the care team for Jane was not able to opt for the
morphine injections. Unfortunately, the condition of the patient deteriorated quickly and her pain
become too much for the patient to endure. However, after close to 15 hours her son agreed after
he was consulted by the head oncologist and senior registered nurse with evidence based data
regarding the advanced stage of cancer of the patient and how only morphine could help numb
the sensation of pain for the patient. The evidence based data helped her so understand the
impact of pain and advanced cancer treatment and agreed to morphine being given to her.
Feelings:
It has to be mentioned in this context that this has been the first encounter I had with the
palliative care setting and the pain and suffering associated with the end of life care setting had a
significant impact on my communication skills and clinical reasoning competence (Dobrina,
Tenze & Palese, 2014). First of all, when I first interacted with Jane, she seemed very friendly to
me and we easily developed a therapeutic relationship. When she expressed her journey with