Personal and professional assessment.

Personal and professional assessment
Situation
I am a registered nurse posted in the surgical ward. I was assigned to the patient named Mr.
Rashid. He is 45 years old admitted with signs and symptoms of impaired kidney function.
He was posted for renal transplantation. He underwent the surgery. I received him after the
surgery. I was assigned to care for Rashid post-operatively. I was implementing the post-
operative procedures and surgical wound dressing to ensure quality nursing care for him. I
was assigned to him for a week. On the third post –the operative day he had increased body
temperature (99F) and related symptoms. I gave him antipyretic as per the physician’s advice
and implemented non-pharmacological interventions to maintain normal body temperature
for him.
On the fourth postoperative day, his temperature increased to 100F despite the effective
nursing interventions. I wanted to locate the cause for the infection and increased body
temperature. I analyzed the procedures and protocols implemented and found that the failure
of a strict aseptic technique is the cause. After finding the cause for the hyperthermia of the
patient I implemented a strict aseptic technique to ensure quality nursing care. This reflective
assessment aids in analyzing the situation and find the cause for the clinical issue. In this
assessment, I am reflecting on the nursing care of postoperative patients with infection and
hyperthermia. According to Potter 2, the structured format used in the study is the Gipps
reflection cycle.
Feelings
When the patient developed hyperthermia I was worried about his condition as he had the
renal transplant recently and the possibility of transplant failure is high in infection. Before
the incident I believed that the strict aseptic technique is not mandatory during busy
schedules and giving medication was the high priority nursing care in the action of preventing

infection. Other health care professionals were worried about the condition of the patient.
After implementing the strict aseptic technique the patient’s temperature was normalized. The
health care professional working with me also understood the importance of strict aseptic
technique.When I went through the situation, I was worried about the condition of the patient
and wanted to normalize the increased temperature. Based on the study of Pegram 4, I
wanted to provide holistic and quality nursing care for the patient. When I recall the situation
now, I think that the simple procedures and protocols in patient care can make a vast
difference in the quality of care. Hand washing before and after the nursing care is the
protocol which can make unimaginable changes in the patient outcome.
Evaluation
Evaluation of the situation improves clinical knowledge through learning from the error
process. Good about the experience is learning. As a registered nurse I was having a wrong
belief and attitude about the hand washing and aseptic technique. My high priority care for
the patient was the administration of medication before the experience. Bad about the
experience is the suffering of the patient. As per the study of Dhakal 1, the patient suffered
from pain and fever. Recovery from the infection and fever was difficult and I was feeling
guilty about seeing the affliction of the patient. The learning process went well. As the cause
for the infection was identified on the third day of the fever and implemented aseptic
technique. In this situation, the recovery from infection was slow as the patient was on
steroids and had renal transplant recently. Patient food intake was significantly affected due
to pain and fever which was the issue that didn’t go well in the situation. I and other people
contribute to the situation as the experience thought our new lesson on the importance of
handwashing and aseptic technique.
Analysis