Reflection Essay | Professional Nursing Standard

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

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Introduction:
Adhering to the professional nursing standard is an important responsibility for all
nursing staffs today. This is paramount to provide safe and clinically competent care.
Professional nursing standards is a framework that introduces all new registered nurses to
expected standard of care and desirable action required to effectively complete caring
responsibilities. All student nurses are aware about key nursing competencies and professional
nursing standards during their nursing training program (Poorchangizi et al., 2017). For nurses,
the process of developing professional competency starts from nursing schools and continues by
taking part in academic training and clinical placement. This experience exposes them to real
practice scenario where they get to apply nursing theories and professional standards to practice
(SHARGHI et al., 2015). All nursing students must reflect on their practice so that they can
develop their professional competencies in a positive way (Karimi et al., 2017). The purpose of
this essay is to provide a reflection on personal professional placement experience as a student
nurse and the link that the experience with one of the Australian Registered Nurse Standard. The
details of the practice experience have been attached in appendix and a reflection on the impact
of nursing activities on the patient will be done.
Relation of placement experience with the Australian Registered Nurse Standards
On review of the pervious placement experience, it can be said that situation gave the
opportunity to implement therapeutic communication skills during a patient encounter. As the
patient was depressed and anxious about her current health state, entering into communication in
a general way was difficult. Hence, therapeutic communication techniques were applied to
ensure that that the care is delivered in accordance with the professional nursing standards. The

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process of establishing mutual trust and therapeutic relationship with patient is related to the
standard 2 of the NMBA registered nurse standards for practice. This standard is about engaging
in therapeutic and professional relationship with patient. The standard 2.2 of the nursing standard
states that nurse must communicate effectively and respect patient dignity, culture, values,
beliefs and rights (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2017). Therapeutic
communication is a fundamental part of the nursing process. It is a process involving use of
specific strategies to support patient to express their feelings and concerns (Sherko, Sotiri &
Lika, 2013). Through the NMBA standard 2, all nursing students are given the guidance
regarding the way to establish therapeutic relationship with patient. As poor nurse patient
encountered lead to poor nursing care quality, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem in patient,
it is an important responsibility of nursing educators to promote deep understanding of the
therapeutic communication among nursing students (Abdolrahimi et al., 2014). Therapeutic
communication is favoured as it helps in doing accurate nursing work and ensuring satisfaction
of patients with care (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014).
During the clinical placement, the main task at hand was completing vital signs assessment
and attending to hygiene needs of patient. However, depression and anxiety of patient created a
barrier in the nursing task as the patient was not responding well and effective communication
technique was needed to deal with such patients. The review of research literature shows patient
anxiety and depression as two common factors that act as a barrier in the nurse-patient
communication process. A study investigating about the communication barriers perceived by
nurse and patient revealed that patient anxiety and physical discomfort was some of the barriers
in the communication process apart from other barriers like hectic environment of the ward and
heavy workload (Norouzinia et al., 2016). The primary cause of anxiety in any hospitalized

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patient includes the effect of disease and dependence on others for care. The tension, uncertainty
and fear in the mind lead to anxiety in patients (Alexandri et al., 2017). In such situation,
communication skills of nurse play an important role in clarifying doubts of patient and
increasing their motivation level (Norouzinia et al., 2016). Lang (2012) argues that as lot is at
stake because of a patient’satisfaction with a facility, good communications skills of care
providers are strictly monitored as it affects their reimbursement and bonuses. Thus, in current
health care system, nurses need to be competent in use of therapeutic communication technique
to improve patient outcome and achieve better professional gains too. During the personal
practice placement experience, the patient also suffered from anxiety because of above reasons.
There was a need to apply therapeutic communication skills to overcome the barriers in
providing care to the patient. Hence, for this reason, the professional practice experience relates
to the NMBA standard 2 of the professional nursing standards.
Reflection on own practice and impact on patient
The clinical practice experience of caring for an anxious hospitalized patient with fear about
her disease was a very enriching experience for me. This activity boosted my confidence level a
lot because I could utilize my theoretical knowledge related to therapeutic care and effective
communication technique in a correct manner. Although initially I was nervous as I found the
patient to be totally unresponsive and not responding to treatment, however my values of
perseverance and the dedication supported me to overcome this initial barrier to care. For
example, while communicating with patient, I demonstrated the right courtesy by greeting the
patient, displaying kindness and allowing patient her own space to express her thoughts and
feelings. I recalled the rapport building skills learnt in class and acted accordingly. This process
helped me to understand that the patient was not comfortable and I need to allow her enough