Reflection on Clinical Experience

Running head: REFLECTION
REFLECTION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Introduction:
According to Garside and Nhemachena (2013), reflective practice forms an essential
aspect of the nursing profession. Nursing professional must ideally introspect upon their clinical
experience so as to identify the key areas that requires improvement (Caldwell, 2013). In other
words, reflective practice enables nursing professionals to clearly identify their strengths and
weaknesses and accordingly adapt strategies to improve on their identified weaknesses so as to
promote positive patient outcome (Tashiro et al., 2013). In this paper, I am going to present a
reflection on my clinical experience using the Gibbs reflective model. The Gibbs Reflective
Framework is used to reflect upon an experience and comprises of six steps, namely, description,
feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action (Moon, 2013). In the subsequent section, all
the mentioned steps would be covered.
Description:
A 45 year le told, aboriginal male reported to the outpatient clinic with increased stomach
pain and discomfort. The patient complained that he felt ‘heavy’ and was not able to eliminate
normally and also felt hart burn. Upon assessment, the physician prescribed Metroclopramide to
be administered through the intramuscular route. The drug Metroclopramide is mainly prescribed
to treat symptoms of gastroparesis or slow emptying of the stomach (Jelvehgari et al., 2016). The
drug upon being injected, increases contraction of the stomach as well as the intestines. The
medication effectively treats the symptoms of nausea, heartburn, vomiting, loss of appetite as
well as a feeling of heaviness or fullness after meals (Jelvehgari et al., 2016).
Feelings:

2NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Upon looking at the patient, the patient seemed to be in pain. At first I empathized with
the patient and informed him that as per the physician’s instruction, I would need to administer
Metroclopramide via the intramuscular route. The patient was not looking at me directly but
nodded his head. I then proceeded to inject the medication but throughout the process, the patient
did not maintain eye contact with me for even once. I felt a little odd but reassured myself that
the patient was in pain and maybe that accounted for the reason why he could not concentrate
elsewhere.
Evaluation:
Upon closely evaluating the interaction with the patient, I was able to identify two major
areas where I failed to deliver care as an effective care professional. The first being, not
considering the culture specific preferences of the patient. The second being, not imparting
patient education in relation to the prescribed medication and the health condition of the patient.
While the patient avoided, eye contact throughout the process, I should have identified that the
patient was not comfortable with me doing the administration. I should have asked the patient
whether or not he would like the medication to be administered by a care professional who
belongs to the similar cultural background as him. I presumed that the patient was distressed and
went ahead with the medication administration. In addition to this, prior to the administration, I
only informed the patient about the medication but did not educate the patient about his health
condition and the rationale for the medication prescription. I had clearly failed to render effective
care to the patient as I had not considered the patient’s cultural preferences, took consent from
the patient prior to the administration or educated the patient about the medication.
Analysis: