Reflective Practice in Nursing: A Case Study on Borderline Personality Disorder

Running head: NURSING PRACTICE 1
Nursing Practice
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

NURSING PRACTICE 2
Nursing Practice
Description
Health professionals are required to advance their knowledge and skills through the
process of constant reflective practice. As a student nurse, I experienced an unpleasant situation
during my initial placement in the constant care ward which is worth evaluating. My patient who
had the borderline personality disorder failed to respond well to treatment (Gunderson, Weinberg
and Choi-Kain, 2013). At first, I thought that the situation was as a result of inadequate
medication management or the utilization of inappropriate treatment approach. Conversely, the
primary cause of my patient’s failure to respond to medication was the ineffective treatment of
other disorders that are as a result of substance abuse. Furthermore, the patient failed to
understand and appreciate the essence of life. Therefore, he did not disclose that he abuses drugs.
The Gibbs’ reflective cycle is suitable for evaluating and analyzing the situation. It helps
people more so health professionals to reflect systematically through the different phases of an
activity or experience (Husebø, O'Regan and Nestel, 2015). Subsequently, Gibb's reflection
model emphasizes the significance of health experts’ ability to comprehend, access and utilize
information from an experience to improve healthcare provision (Hébert, 2015). Therefore, the
reflective model allows for adequate reflection on any medical experience.
Feelings
I experienced emotional breakdown because my patient was not recovering from the
clinical condition. The core aim of nurses is to make sure that people have good health.
However, when patients conceal vital information, the provision of care could become
ineffective. Therefore, it was very stressing to provide the necessary medication whereas the
patient was not improving. Although I could not accelerate his recovery process, I strive to