Journal on Road Accident Patient

Running head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Reflective Journal
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Reflective journal is a student’s journal based on the personal experiences. It helps the
student to build up skills and self-evaluate the situation and provide suggestions. It empowers the
students to segregate information what they know and what they do not know (Silvia, Valerio
and Lorenza 2012, pp.102). The journal deals with an incident in which a road accident patient is
brought to the hospital. Later on, from the blood sample testing it was found that the patient was
having tuberculosis. The main purpose of the journal is to understand the depth of the above-
mentioned situation and critical assessment after self-assessing the conditions. To address and
analyse the case further Gibb’s reflective model is used which is most used among the health
professionals. A discussion on Emotional Intelligence is provided which guides the infection
control nurse to tackle the challenges that often plague the nursing field.
The incident occurred on 22nd February 2017, a female patient aged around 47 years was
admitted in an emergency ward. The patient had an accident and she was bleeding heavily. Due
to excess bleeding the patient was given blood transfusion. While the patient had no
identification card with her, a blood group test was done to find the blood group of the patient. I
being the infection control nurse did some test with blood samples to investigate whether the
patient had any bacterial infection. I was shocked to find the blood samples infected with
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. Later, a chest x-ray of the patient revealed chest infection and it
was later established that the patient was later diagnosed with tuberculosis. While, I have seen
that nurses and clinical staffs attending the patient were not wearing any surgical mask, medical
gloves in the ward.
The case is further discussed according to the procedures mentioned in Gibb’s reflective
model. The model is theoretical and is based on the description, analysis and experience of the
health professional (Gibbs, 1998).

2REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Feelings
I was initially shocked to see that the accident patient was bleeding heavily and was
having trouble to breath. Blood was all over the patient’s clothes and she was subconscious, I
was thinking of the pain the patient was going through. The several clinical staffs, staff nurses
that took the patient in a rush to the emergency unit gave a doubt whether the patient even can
survive. Later, on I calmed myself and controlled my emotions.
Evaluation:
The clinical staff, the staff nurses acted quickly in moving the patient to the emergency
unit. Perhaps the clinical staff could have put one cloth on the patient covering the blood stains to
reduce the sense of panic among the other hospital staffs and outsiders. I being an infection
control nurse look after the prevention of any sort of infection that can spread from the new
admitted patients. One bad experience was that in this moment of rush, neither the clinical staffs
nor the staff nurses were wearing the surgical masks nor the medical gloves to prevent any
spread of probable infection (McHugh 2014, pp.48). I realize that I failed to prioritize the tasks. I
should have done management of time according to the needs of the hour. Depending on the
urgency, I should have created a separate section or room where the surgical masks, medical
gloves are kept in a place systematically. So that during the time of emergency, the staff nurses
and the clinical staffs do not forget to use them.
In this incident, I found that my action was not proactive enough. I should have taken the
initiative to supervise the staff nurses and the clinical staffs before moving the patient to the
emergency unit. I assumed that the staff nurses and the clinical staff were knowledgeable enough
to perform their duties effectively. In the future, I will organize some training sessions that will
focus on the usage of the surgical mask, medical gloves and try to maintain a hygienic condition

3REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
which will prevent the spread of any infection. Although I often emphasize on the fact of
maintenance of hygiene by the clinical staffs and the staff nurses, I will specially guide them to
be careful in dealing with patient who have infectious diseases. For the benefit for all it is better
to supervise the clinical staffs and the staff nurses to remove competition and lay emphasis on
the mutual cooperation that will increase team work and team playing. This will minimize the
mistake committed during the work.
Analysis
Providing the proper training to the clinical staffs and the staff nurses regarding the
maintenance of hygiene, usage of surgical mask and the medical gloves to reduce the incidence
of bacterial infections, Spread of infectious diseases and the disease-causing micro-organisms.
The Mycobacterium Tuberculosisis a bacterial disease that infects the lungs although it is
preventable and curable. Tuberculosis spreads from person to person through air. When the
infected person coughs, sneezes, spits then the tuberculosis propels in to the air. Only a few of
these needs to be inhaled by another person to get infected (who.int, 2017). Hence, training the
clinical staffs and the nurses to wear the surgical mask will prevent them to get infected from the
patient and even during assisting the patient the clinical staffs and the staff nurses must wear
medical gloves.
Action plan
The prime motive is to communicate effectively with the staff nurse and the
clinical staff, because conflict occurs due to incomplete understanding. Hence, understanding
what message the other person wants to convey and then replying back after thorough
understanding. It is desirable that a team must work together effectively to achieve a desirable
result. Instead to working separately it is a good thing that infection control nurses, staff nurses