Transition to Professional Nursing Report 2022

Running head: Transition to Professional Nursing
Transition to Professional Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Transition to Professional Nursing1
Reflective essay
The nursing and the Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), regulates nursing
practice in Australia and one of its important role is to protect the public. Standards or the
scope of practice are important for a nurse for the identification of the procedure, actions and
the processes an individual can perform. In this paper I will narrate an incident, which
occurred during my placement in the geriatric ward. I will use 5R’s of reflection for
describing the incident as well as my feelings and anxiety centring that incident. The two
main standards that will be used in this essay are –standard 3, that maintenance of the
capability of practice. Another standard that will be considered is the standard 6, which is
provision of a safe, appropriate and responsive quality of nursing.
Reporting
This is an unfortunate incident as a nurse where I was a registered nurse in the
geriatric nurse, where I administered a wrong opiate drug to a patient. This incident occurred
while I was checking and administering the drug. It was fortunate that the error was identified
and resolved by a senior nurse at the time of handing over the shift. The error was noted at
the time of checking of the drug dosages, when the registered nurse discovered a discrepancy
in the number of morphine ampules, in stock for the patient, in the drawer. Finally this matter
was escalated to the higher authority as this incident could have been lethal for the elderly
patient. However, the matter was resolved quickly after I apologized to the patient and the
seniors. I was my luck, that the patients was fine after this mishap.
Responding
The moment, the news has been delivered to me, my initial reaction was of shock and
disbelief and the first thing that hit my mind, is that “Is the patient alive?” It was hard for me
to believe that such an incident occurred from my hand as I had always been careful while

Transition to Professional Nursing2
checking and administering the medication. I was very anxious as well as annoyed on myself,
as it was my onus to take care of the patient and the entire responsibility of this patient during
my shift lies on me. I was embarrassed as it directly questioned my competence as I needed
to be more careful, since I was dealing with elderly patients, where most of the patients have
multiple comorbidities and most of them are under multiple medications. Adverse drug
reactions leads to greater health care costs, drug-drug reactions, medication non adherence,
reduction in the functional capacity of the patients and multiple geriatric symptoms, that can
even cause mortality in patients (Khandeparkar & Rataboli, 2017).
Relating
I cannot relate this to any of my past experiences as I have never committed such a
grave mistake. For example, I double check the medication charts before administration of
the medicines and I also check the shift handovers before my shift is over. I could found third
incident similar to an incident that took place few days back in out hospital where a patient
died due to contraindications. Hence, I was much aware of the severity of a medication error.
I felt very ashamed of this, as I was well aware of the five rights of medication administration
and the slippery slope medication errors like wrong dosage of medicines, wrong prescription,
and wrong identification of patients. Hence, whenever I administer medications, I make sure
that I don’t make all these mistakes.
Reflecting on this incident, I can only say that being a registered nurse, I am
accountable for the safety of the patient. According the standard 3 of Australian Nursing and
Midwifery board of Australia, a nurse should be able to accept the accountability for any
decisions, actions, responsibilities and behaviour inherent in their role and also for the actions
of herself/ himself. I should be more alert while administering medications and will also keep
an eye on my peers so that they do not repeat the same mistake that I have committed . (Elden