Reflective Essay on NMBA Standards

This reflective essay discusses the importance of NMBA standards in nursing practice. The author shares a personal experience of engaging with a patient and highlights the significance of therapeutic engagement and effective communication skills. The essay evaluates the experience and provides an action plan for improving clinical practice skills.

Running head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON NMBA STANDARDS
Reflective essay on NMBA standards
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON NMBA STANDARDS
Introduction:
The ethical and legal framework of nursing practice provides the nurses with the set
guideline mistaken following step by step function to other to each of the legal principles and
legislative elements of clinical practice (Kumaran & Carney, 2014). the registered nurse practice
standards developed by the nursing and midwifery board of Australia or NMBA provides one
such exceptional tractors pain but which helps the nurses inform their practice and added to the
legal guidelines successfully. in this essay I will attempt to discuss this particular practice
Framework with respect to a personal experience that I have had in my place which help me
understand the importance of practice standards and also guide me to use the standard into
practice.
Description:
I was assigned to communicate with the patient who had been admitted for hip
replacement surgery and engage with her and informing her about the procedures that is going to
be followed before and after the surgery and the precaution that are needed to be maintained.
This was my first encounter with a patient and even though the activity only encompassed
patient education and sharing of information, it was my first opportunity to therapeutically
engage with the patient and I had been extremely excited as well as nervous while
communicating with her. I attempted to communicate with the patient following all the
theoretical knowledge of effective therapeutic communication however the patient has been very
depressed and anxious about having to stay in the sterile empowerment of the facility and not
being able to communicate with her daughter of a husband during the stay. Even though I tried
my best to communicate with her about the need of the operation and how it will benefit for

2REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON NMBA STANDARDS
health eventually, she seemed distracted and anxious throughout. However, post the patient
education period I was required to carry out a thorough physical and vital signs assessment. In
this case when I attempted to assess her she became agitated and stopped cooperating
completely. She did not want to be participating in the assessment procedure, and soon started
screaming to which my supervisors had to step in and calm the patient down. Although it has
been an embarrassing moment for me in my career and reflecting on the issue later I understood
that I had made a few errors in practice which left to these restricted challenge (Fry et al., 2015).
Feelings:
I would like to mention that this has been the first opportunity for me to engage with the
patient and a real-world care giving scenario and I have been ecstatic about finally being able to
put all my political knowledge and skills into real applicative practice. However, along with the
excitement and Euphoria of being able to participate in hands on practice, the nervousness and
fear of committing errors unintentionally had been running havoc on my mind. When I first
started communicating with the patient I felt extremely nervous and burdened by the fear of
committing a mistake and when I observe the patient to be distressed and disengage even after
me trying to engage her in the patient education session I felt extremely demotivated and
defeated. My confidence was even decreased when the patient started screaming. I felt modified
and embarrassed when my supervisor to step in and come the patient down. This had been a
learning milestone for me and I have gathered wealth of knowledge in cities in handling patients
in Real world case scenarios (Forsberg et al., 2016 ).
Evaluation:

3REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON NMBA STANDARDS
Considering what has worked in this experience, I would like to mention that I had been
able to implement effective verbal cues of communication by engaging the patient in the patient
education session. According to the standard 2 of registered nurse practice standard NMBA,
which is the first standard that has been chosen to be reflected on for this essay, engaging in
therapeutic and professional relationships taking the age of effective communication skills, Both
verbal and nonverbal (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2018). According to this standard, nurses
are required to establish sustain in therapeutic relationship that differentiates the boundary
between professional relationship interpersonal relationship by communicating effectively and
being respectful to the dignity value cultural beliefs and rights of the patient. In this case I have
been very respectful to the cultural identity and personality of the patient and had been extremely
respectful in my communication approach as well (Chang, 2015). However, my error had been
taking the mental state of the patient into consideration. She has been distracted and distressed
due to the impending operation and separation from her family. On the other hand, another thing
that was positively for me in this experience has been conducting the comprehensive assessment
for which I follow each and every step thoroughly with proper documentation. Although, I did
not ask for informed consent and did not prioritize the patient needs before commencing the
process, which violated the standard 4 of the NMBA registered nurse practice standards
(Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2018).
Analysis:
Therapeutic engagement with patients has a significant impact on the care experience of
the patient and also establishes the first point of contact with the care delivery system. It has to
mention for the care service to be optimal and accelerating the recovery of the patient is very
important for the patient be equally participating and cooperative with the procedure (Webster,

4REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON NMBA STANDARDS
2014). Proper therapeutic communication and engagement with a patient in colleges the
collaboration and cooperation from the patients and also in cells sense of value and respect is the
patient which further enhance is the satisfaction from the care experience and accelerates the
process of recovery. As per the second standard of NMBA, engaging with the patient is a crucial
responsibility of the nurses (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2018). Lorié et al. (2017) have
opined, the therapeutic engagement relies both on verbal and non verbal communication. As a
nurse, taking account of the emotional state of the patient and addressing her emotional needs is
a crucial requirement of effective non verbal communication. I should have reassured her and
listened to her fears as a nurse while establishing the therapeutic connection on a priority basis.
Similarly, for the assessment, holistic and culturally appropriate techniques are needed to
be followed under all circumstances. In this case, not respectfully asking permission from Emily
before starting the assessment had violated the 4th NMBA standard effectively. Although, I had
been flustered by confusion, lack of practice knowledge and the patients disengagement.
Barksby, Butcher and Whysall, (2015) discussed that fear, confusion and lack of practice
oriented knowledge is the main contributing factor leading to errors in clinical practice which has
the potential to harm the patients. Hence, there is need for efforts to improve my skills so that it
does not affect my future practice (Levett-Jones, Reid-Searl & Bourgeois, 2018).
Action plan:
From the experience, lack of non verbal communication, lack of proper patient
engagement skills, nervousness and lack of confidence was identified as key drawbacks in my
competence. Hence, I will reach out to my supervisor for her suggestions and enroll in
professional skill development programs to enhance my professional clinical practice skills. For

5REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON NMBA STANDARDS
my personality traits and soft skills, I will be taking the aid of online courses and workshops to
build the skills. Lastly, I would attempt to document my progress through reflective journals to
keep a track of the progress (Levett-Jones et al., 2015).
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, this experience provided me the chance to revisit my personal and
professional skills and competences which has the potential to affect my clinical practice in the
future. This had also helped me assess my first encounter with a patient and participating in the
care journey which helped me discover my strengths and weaknesses along with certain key
performance expertise. I firmly believe that the knowledge and expertise gained from this
experience would benefit me immensely in my future practice.

6REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON NMBA STANDARDS
References:
Barksby, J., Butcher, N., & Whysall, A. (2015). A new model of reflection for clinical
practice. Nursing Time, 111, 34-35.
Chang, E. (2015). Transitions in nursing: Preparing for professional practice. Elsevier Health
Sciences.
Forsberg, E., Ziegert, K., Hult, H., &Fors, U. (2016). Assessing progression of clinical reasoning
through virtual patients: An exploratory study. Nurse education in practice, 16(1), 97-
103.
Fry, M., MacGregor, C., Hyland, S., Payne, B., & Chenoweth, L. (2015). Emergency nurses’
perceptions of the role of confidence, self‐efficacy and reflexivity in managing the
cognitively impaired older person in pain. Journal of clinical nursing, 24(11-12), 1622-
1629.
Kumaran, S., & Carney, M. (2014). Role transition from student nurse to staff nurse: Facilitating
the transition period. Nurse education in practice, 14(6), 605-611.
Levett-Jones, T., Pitt, V., Courtney-Pratt, H., Harbrow, G., &Rossiter, R. (2015). What are the
primary concerns of nursing students as they prepare for and contemplate their first
clinical placement experience?. Nurse Education in Practice, 15(4), 304-309.
Levett-Jones, T., Reid-Searl, K., & Bourgeois, S. (2018). The clinical placement: An essential
guide for nursing students. Elsevier Health Sciences.

7REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON NMBA STANDARDS
Lorié, Á., Reinero, D. A., Phillips, M., Zhang, L., & Riess, H. (2017). Culture and nonverbal
expressions of empathy in clinical settings: A systematic review. Patient education and
counseling, 100(3), 411-424.
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, (2018). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
Professional standards. Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
[Online] .Retrieved from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/codes-guidelines-
statements/professional-standards.aspx. [Accessed on 4th Oct.]
Webster, D. (2014). Using standardized patients to teach therapeutic communication in
psychiatric nursing. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 10(2), e81-e86.