Reflective Journal in Nursing

Running head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL IN NURSING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
Reflection in nursing practice works as a foundation stone for development of experience
of nursing professionals (Lestander, Lehto & Engström, 2016). Through this practice, nursing
professionals are able to connect their working experiences with the theoretical knowledge of the
clinical context, and then depending on that they can modify the clinical practice and develop
fresh insights for future practice. Nursing professionals deal with multiple patients with different
ailments and hence, positive and negative effect of those experiences affect their ability to
comply with the nursing process (Snyder, 2014).
Scenario 1: Meeting educational needs of patients and their families
Description of event
While working with a patient affected with dementia, the primary thing I noticed was
their lack of knowledge regarding their ailment. They were not aware about the factors upon
which they need to focus and their family members as well, did not asked me about the
preventive measures they need to take for the benefit of the patient (Smolowitz et al., 2015).
Therefore, lack of knowledge and understanding of the need while suffering from dementia
prevailed ion patient and his family. Therefore, my objective was to make them aware of the
crucial phase of dementia and the preventive measure they should be following as Marcus (2014)
has mentioned that these information are important for health improvement of the patient.
Feeling/thought
I was very hopeful about my objectives and was confident that within a week, through
several sessions and presentations, I will be able to make the patient and his family aware of

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every minute detail of care process for dementia affected patients. Therefore, I was surrounded
with positive thoughts regarding the educational session of the patient and his family.
Analysis
While conducting the process, I came to know that dementia and other similar mental
disorders are perceived by the society as a limiting factor and hence, there is very less amount of
information is available within the society. Hence, this analysis made me more determined to
make this patient and his family aware of the dementia associated situation, so that they can
overcome the stigma such as social isolation, not trusting the healthcare professionals, doubting
their self as mentioned in the research by Turchi et al. (2014).
Evaluation
While evaluating the positives and negatives of the situation as suggested by the
researchers Turchi et al. (2014) while working with patients of dementia, I understood that,
eliminating social stigma is a long process, however I was able to make the patient understand
his condition and he was able to take proper care of all preventive measures so that improvement
in his condition could be seen.
Conclusion
Patient education and inclusion of family in the care process is a process through which
knowledge related to the disorder could be spread to the society and negative thoughts,
discrimination and stigma associated to dementia could be eliminated.

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Action plan
After successfully completing the session for the patient with dementia, I would try to
educate and spread awareness to each of my patients and their families so that through them, the
awareness could be spread to their immediate community and involving the patients and families
in the care process for patients with dementia becomes easier (Marcus, 2014).
Scenario 2: communication issues with patients and colleagues
Description
While working with a 70 year old patient suffering from vascular dementia, I perceived
the communication gap present in both, nurse and patient as well as among the administration as
I observed that patient, in his severe health condition, was unable to communicate his needs to
the nursing professionals. Further, I also observed that majority of the aged care professionals
were unable to understand the need of communication so that quality of the care process could be
sustained, as majority of the healthcare services do not provide proper aged care nursing
communication associated training to help them to improve their quality (Strang et al., 2014).
Feelings
While observing the situation within the care facility regarding the gap in
communication, I felt the importance of communication for our patients and hence, I thought of
providing a detail of this loophole to the supervisor. This was necessary for the patient as he was
suffering from vascular dementia, in which speech and memory of the patient is primarily
affected (Green et al., 2015). Hence, I felt determined that I will be sharing each of these
concerns to the higher authority so that they can implement strategies to improve the
communication situation among nursing professionals and provide necessary care to the patients.