Reflection On Social Care

This reflection by a healthcare assistant describes a critical incident that occurred during their professional practice. The incident involved giving a patient five times the prescribed dose of IV morphine. The reflection discusses the incident, the feelings and thoughts about it, and an action plan to prevent it from happening again. It also covers the principles and values that guide healthcare providers and the professional issues affecting them.

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Reflection On Social Care
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Introduction
Social care can be defined as the environment where people live and have access to
healthcare services. Example of social care may include a community nursing home or hospital
where health services can be provided to the patients. During my professional practice, as a
healthcare assistant, there is a critical incident that occured at the health facility where I was
working. A critical incident is an event that may occurs unexpectedly or suddenly. It can also be
defined as an event that happens out of normal experience increasing level of threats directed to
life including the elements of emotional or physical loss. When appropriate support is provided
to people affected by a critical incident, they can recover quickly. My duties in the facility were
ranging from assisting with clinical responsibilities, communicating with carers, relatives,
patients, observing, monitoring and recording patient weight, respiration, pulse, and temperature.
This paper will describe a reflection on a critical incident I encountered during my professional
practice as a healthcare assistant at my place of work.
Description of Incident
During my professional practice as a healthcare assistant, I was assigned to a patient
prescribed IV morphine 2mg to help in reducing pain when respiratory readings go below 10.
The patient had been referred to a post-anesthesia department because he had a low respiratory
rate which was accompanied by low blood pressure and pulse rate. During my routine checks
and observations for vital signs which I was conducting after every 30 minutes, I realized that the
patient respiratory rate had fallen to 8 which was below the margin of 10. The vital patient
readings were; blood pressure 89/62, pulse rate of 50 and respiratory rate of 8 ( Osborne et al.
2015, pp.951-962).
I took a whole vial of morphine and injected the patient intravenously as instructed but

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later found this was 5times more than the prescribed dose. I got terrified about the situation
expecting the worst to happen. I immediately went to report to my in-charge supervisor about
medication error that had occurred so that physician and anesthesiologist can be informed about
the issue. It was my worst experience of my profession as a healthcare assistant because this
made me worry more about patient life as well as my career. My supervisor hurriedly reported
medication error to the physicians and anesthesiologist who within minutes came to observe the
patient condition (Wang et al. 2015, p.393).
Within a few minutes, the patient started to complain of nausea which prompted me to
retake vital signs. To my surprise, blood pressure readings, pulse rate, and respiratory readings
were all within normal margins. Anesthesiologist and physician arrived to find out about the
patient condition. After observation and some check-ups, they all found out nothing was
alarming. They all advised to continue observing patient vitals after every 30 minutes and report
anything alarming immediately.
This was a sense of relief to both my supervisor and me who were attending to the
patient. I was left in a dilemma because I knew the patient had been given five times the normal
IV dose. Majority of patients given such dosage would be in dire consequences which can force
them to be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit for close monitoring (Niemann et al. 2015,
pp.101-114).
Feelings and Thought About Reflection
Based on reflection on this incident, there was a little contribution I could provide. I was
terrified that the patient family could sue me for giving the wrong medication to their loved one.
My supervisor was confused and terrified too because of the mistake because this was going to
have a negative reflection about the services provided by our hospital. I just imagined how my

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career and professional practice would have been interrupted with that mistake because I knew
the outcome would have been even death of the patient.
Evaluation
According to my assessment of the incident, I just focused on improving the patient
health. This was based on the observation after taking vital reading and my knowledge as a
healthcare assistant. In this scenario, there was no clear handing over between physicians and
healthcare assistant with clear communication about the patient condition including how the
medication will be provided when there are changes. The mistake I made is that I did not check
for an updated treatment plan of the patient after surgery.
Analysis
To properly analyze the result of this reflection, one can assume that healthcare assistants
are assigned to many patients that they should take care of all at the same time. Reflection also
shows that healthcare assistants should make sure they check the patient treatment plan before
providing any service. They should also seek for an advise in areas they are not sure to reduce on
chances of creating errors to patients.
Action Plan
To prevent such incident from happening once more in my career, I will be able to
advocate cooperation and collaboration among healthcare assistants and physicians to improve
communication. I will also advise physicians to make sure there is sufficient communication
during handover between shifts to avoid miscommunication. This will help in ensuring there is a
good understanding on what needs to be given to that patient. Additionally, I will advocate for
an increase of healthcare staffs to reduce the challenge of over assignment of patients and long
working shifts.

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How Reasoning, Capability, and Advancement of Thinking Support Decision
Making
Critical thinking capability and reasoning is important in because it gives healthcare
providers ability to identify and perceive patient issues and needs. This helps them while making
decisions based on how they observed the patient. Healthcare providers need skills in analyzing
events, implementing their information into action, predicting, logical reasoning, data seeking and
applying standards. (Castaneda and Scanlan 2014, pp. 130-138).
Application of Modes of Reflection
Reflection modes are fundamental because they enable healthcare providers to make
sense based on their professional experience. This is achieved through the assessment of their
expertise, description, and analysis of events or incidents they have experienced during their
professional practice. Reflection theories enable healthcare practitioners to make the right
choices and examine their practice especially when an incident reoccurs by creating the right
action plan (Xará et al., 2015, pp.69-75).
Principles and personal values of healthcare providers
Principles and personal values help in guiding healthcare providers to deliver quality
healthcare to their patients regardless of the patients status. These principles and values include;
integrity, excellence, diversity, and caring(Suurmond et al. 2013, pp.668-673).
Caring. This principle guides all healthcare providers to focus on providing quality
healthcare services to patients their patients regardless of their status. The principle outlines how
healthcare providers should take care of their parents and ensure services provided meet
excellence as well as observing the interests of the stakeholders.
Integrity. This principle aims at guiding healthcare providers, encourage humility and

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ensure ethical decision making is followed when deciding on issues affecting their patients.
Integrity also helps in demonstrating consistency among healthcare providers by ensuring proper
conduct regarding behavior and right decisions that ensure affordable and accessible services are
provided to patients. (Shahriari et al., 2013, p.1).
Diversity. It aims at many identities which include religions, physical abilities,
ideologies, socioeconomic status, age, gender, political beliefs, sexual orientation, intersectoral
race-ethnicity, and. It health issues across academic institutions and health enterprises. It also
focuses on helping healthcare providers in understanding how different people behave and
differences within social groups (Baird et al., 2014, pp.183-185).
Excellence. It refers to the ability of healthcare providers to have commitment,
understanding, and improvement to continuous growth at their various social setting. Excellence
in healthcare delivery aims in transformation and status quo. It is essential because it helps to
eliminate mediocrity among who are not committed to providing quality care to patients assigned
to them and have no patient interest at their heart (Ivanov and Oden 2013, pp.231-238)
Professional issues affecting healthcare providers
The knowledge I acquired as a healthcare assistant has helped me to understand the diverse
problems affecting healthcare providers to in their effort to provide quality healthcare to patients
their patients.
Long working hours. Majority of healthcare facilities assign healthcare assistant many patients
who force them to work for long shifts to meet all their needs. The long shifts lead to a higher
level of burnout and fatigue among them, and at times the shifts are planned on back to back
giving them little time to rest and even have time with their families. According to studies on the
impact of long working hours among healthcare assistants, many of them have intended to leave

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the job, they experience job burnout, and fatigue and long working hours that can affect them
mentally (Asgary and Junck 2013, pp.625-631).
Short staffing. Thi is a significant challenge affecting healthcare delivery and leads to some of
the errors found at their places of work. According to research about the impacts of short staffing
of healthcare providers and inequitable assignments; it leads to dissatisfaction among healthcare
assistants discouraging them from providing quality care to patients assigned to them. Healthcare
assistants are assigned to patients randomly forcing them to attend to many patients in a day
hence increasing burnouts and fatigue (Jones et al., 2013, pp.46-53).
Compensation. Healthcare assistant earns their reward according to the regional areas where
they live. The gap in payment among healthcare assistant affects the quality of care provided to
the patient. Majority work for long hours and are assigned to many patients, yet they are not paid
well to keep them motivated in providing quality care(Iacobucci et al. 2013, pp.479-490).
Conclusion
In conclusion, reflection shows the importance for all healthcare providers to be careful
every time they are handling patients. Assistant healthcare providers should always confirm
updated patient treatment plan to avoid giving patients wrong medications. This is very
important to avoid exposing patients to other medical conditions and problems which were not
affecting them. It is also essential for all healthcare practitioners to follow the principles and
ethics of practice while proving care services to the patients. It helps to prioritize the patient
needs beyond anything else and ensure the best services are provided according to need and with
fairness. Issues affecting healthcare providers need to be addressed professionally to ensure they
are comfortable and satisfied as they take care of patients.

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References
Asgary, R. and Junck, E., 2013. New trends of short-term humanitarian medical volunteerism:
professional and ethical considerations. Journal of medical ethics, 39(10), pp.625-631.
Baird, M., Blount, A., Brungardt, S., Dickinson, P., Dietrich, A., Epperly, T., Green, L., Henley,
D., Kessler, R., Korsen, N. and McDaniel, S., 2014. Joint principles: integrating
behavioral health care into the patient-centered medical home. The Annals of Family

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Medicine, 12(2), pp.183-185.
Castaneda, G.A. and Scanlan, J.M., 2014, April. Job satisfaction in nursing: A concept analysis.
In Nursing forum(Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 130-138).
Iacobucci, T.A., Daly, B.J., Lindell, D. and Griffin, M.Q., 2013. Professional values, self-esteem,
and ethical confidence of baccalaureate nursing students. Nursing Ethics, 20(4), pp.479-
490.
Ivanov, L.L. and Oden, T.L., 2013. Public health nursing, ethics, and human rights. Public health
nursing, 30(3), pp.231-238.
Jones, M.C., Wells, M., Gao, C., Cassidy, B. and Davie, J., 2013. Work stress and well‐being in
oncology settings: a multidisciplinary study of health care professionals. Psycho‐
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Niemann, D., Bertsche, A., Meyrath, D., Koepf, E.D., Traiser, C., Seebald, K., Schmitt, C.P.,
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of clinical nursing, 24(1-2), pp.101-114.
Osborne, S., Douglas, C., Reid, C., Jones, L. and Gardner, G., 2015. The primacy of vital signs–
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study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 52(5), pp.951-962.
Shahriari, M., Mohammadi, E., Abbaszadeh, A. and Bahrami, M., 2013. Nursing ethical values
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Suurmond, J., Rupp, I., Seeleman, C., Goosen, S. and Stronks, K., 2013. The first contacts
between healthcare providers and newly-arrived asylum seekers: a qualitative study about

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which issues need to be addressed. Public Health, 127(7), pp.668-673.
Wang, H.F., Jin, J.F., Feng, X.Q., Huang, X., Zhu, L.L., Zhao, X.Y. and Zhou, Q., 2015. Quality
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