Reflection on Clinical Placement Experience

Running head: REFLECTION
REFLECTION
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

REFLECTION
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Introduction:
The purpose of the paper is to reflect on the experience I have encountered during my
clinical placement with assistance of Gibb’s reflection model. Gibb’s reflection encourages
health professionals to think systematically about the experience with an intention of evaluating
practice and implement changes in the current practice. This reflection has been chosen to
highlight the need for nurses to improve certain nursing skills in order to provide holistic care
and enhance the relationship between patient and nurse. This paper will discuss the importance
of the reflection in the professional practice and reflect on the experiences encountered in clinical
practice with six steps of Gibb’s reflection model in the following paragraph.
Importance of reflection in professional practice:
Reflection is an increasingly crucial element to professional practice since it provides an
opportunity to evaluate the skills and knowledge gained in the clinical experience in order to
improve clinical practice (Pianpeng and Koraneekij 2016). Reflection is a process which assists
to apply the theory in practical experience and helps to build self-awareness which is extremely
important for health professionals
Description:
During my clinical placement, I have encountered a patient with schizophrenia of 56
years woman Miss X, who lived away from her parents because her family did not support her
for moving in with her boyfriend. I was instructed by my supervisor to conduct a physical
assessment of her within 30minutes in order to document her health conditions and mental
assessment would be conducted by my supervisor after that. My supervisor suggested that she is
critical patient and I should conduct it carefully within a short period of time. Her clinical

REFLECTION
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handover suggested that she was experiencing auditory hallucinations and had a false belief that
everybody wants to hurt her. Since time for the assessment was limited, after a short introduction
with the patient, I immediately started her physical assessment. However, I observed that she
was aggressive suddenly and started screaming. Other medical professions immediately came
into the location in order to manage the situation.
Feeling:
Initially, when I was provided with the opportunity to assess a mentally ill patient, I was
excited since I was new to this experience and my supervisor provided an opportunity to learn
new practical skills of handling the critical patient. However, when I encountered the patient, I
was quite nervous and anxious considering her situation and started physical assessment after a
short introductory session. I was terrified when the patient became aggressive and started
screaming. I was quite disappointed; I felt that I cannot be a competent nurse to provide safe and
responsive holistic care to the mentally ill patient.
Evaluation:
This part of the Gibbs reflection model discusses the positive and negative experience of
the clinical experience. The positive experience I have gathered from the incidence is that a
nurse should be sensitive towards a patient who is feeling distressed, especially mentally ill
patient. I feel it went well since I have gained the understanding that how attentive a nurse is and
how a nurse prioritize a mentally ill patient have a strong impact on the patient. I will
incorporate this knowledge in my future practice in order to enhance my practice. However, the
negative experience I have gathered that I failed to provide safe and responsive care to the
patient. As discussed by Martin and Chanda (2016), a nurse would require to engage patient in
therapeutic communication in order to make the patient safe and comfortable. It enhances the