Reflection On Social Care

Reflection On Social Care 1
Reflection On Social Care
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Reflection On Social Care 2
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

Reflection On Social Care 3
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