Preventing Falls and Improving Patient Care: A Reflective Essay on the Experience of Mr. William Taylor

Nursing
Student’s name:
Institutional:

This essay aims to discuss the experience of Mr. William Taylor a 75 years old man, who
underwent a fall and the care that was given to him throughout his management. The essay will
tend to focus on preventing falls and the harms that are associated to it and about my health
record. Gibbs (1988) reflective cycle will be used for this essay. It contains six stages which
include; description, feelings and thoughts, values and beliefs, analysis, conclusion and action
plan (Bulman, & Schutz, 2013). Moreover, it will relate and be able to show nursing practices
can be integrated to help improve care of patient and their families.
I was working under supervision of Natasha Reedy who is an examiner for this course. We
cared for Mr. William Taylor, who had undergone a severe injury after a fall. He immediately
lost the function of his right arm. He felt near his home where nobody was around but he
managed to reach the house where her wife and visitors were there. Dionyssiotis (2012) argued
that there is an higher risk of falls and harms from falls for those people under some medications,
having low bone density and impaired vision. He however refused to be taken to the public
hospital due to his previous experience whereby he had to wait for 11 hours to be attended to yet
he was in severe pain. The next day at the clinic the doctor only requested for x-ray and blood
tests were never called for. He experienced another fall four weeks thereafter. When blood tests
were done, it revealed that he was anemic. Endoscopy and colonoscopy fail to show reason for
anemia and it was decided that a pill cam will be used
I was saddened by the fact that the doctor only requested for an x-ray and never even called
for blood tests. I was not happy with this fact since the doctor could not try to figure out what
might have made William to fall. I felt that this was not right, since as a nurse, I understand that
it is important for a patient to undergo a diagnostic procedure so that proper management can be
administered according to his condition. I felt that it was not fair for the doctor to act in such a

way since if he had diagnosed him in the first incident then William could not have experienced
another fall four weeks later because proper treatment could have been initiated.
Professional competency and prevention of infection are some of the values that guide health
care working. This is the reason why I was not happy with the doctor for not trying to diagnose
Mr. William so as to prevent future falls and even treat the prevailing condition. Professional
competency to some extent were not achieved by the doctor concerning this case. The national
safety and quality health care also emphasizes on prevention of falls. This is because falls have
been found to be one of the largest cause of injuries in health care. This guideline is therefore
important since it guides the nurse and what to do and will save the patient from further injuries.
I was glad that this were done on the second visit.
Mr. William experience initially was not patient centered. Patient centered care approached
is emphasized much on the National safety and quality health care. It involves caring for the
patient as an individual and not merely just focusing on the condition (Ekman, et.al, 2011). In
nursing holistic care has been define as taking “mind-body-spirit-environment” approach in
taking care of the patient (Gray,2016). When Taylor visited the doctors ‘s clinic it was sad that
the doctor focused only on the body part. That is why he only asked for the x-ray and no further
test or guidance were done. The surgeon also never gave him a chance to make a choice but he
straight away send him to a physiotherapist whom was the best according to his opinion.
William’s experience and care by the physiotherapist and after the second fall was however
more personalized. Mr. William confirmed that his experienced with the physiotherapist was
good since, the physiotherapist managed to teach him how to use his arm with the assistance of
the other arm and other aids such as, sticks. During her second visits, his blood test was done and
that is when they found out that he has anemia. He was given iron supplements and later