Nuclear Medicine Reflective Journal

This reflective journal documents a student's experience during their first clinical placement in a nuclear medicine department. The journal utilizes Gibbs' reflective cycle to analyze the student's roles and responsibilities, including observing procedures, interacting with patients, and processing images. The student identifies strengths such as applying academic knowledge and maintaining professional communication, while also acknowledging areas for development, particularly in confidently handling emotionally distressed patients and providing empathetic patient care. Specific scenarios involving interactions with cancer patients are detailed, highlighting the challenges of communicating sensitive information and the importance of professional patient care. The student reflects on their emotional responses and identifies the need to improve confidence and communication skills to better support patients in emotionally challenging situations. The overall experience emphasizes the significance of reflective practice in enhancing clinical skills and patient care.

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Nuclear Medicine
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Authors note:

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Introduction
Clinical placement plays a significant role in career progression in the life of a student. It
involves students to apply academic knowledge and technical skills and understand the
importance of empathy in real situations (Porter, Morphet, Missen& Raymond, 2013).
Clinical placement allows students to improve knowledge and enhance self-confidence in the
work field. Student practice can also be improved through reflection on our skills set and
actions during the training process (Paget, 2008).It is applied by reflecting on the students
practice during clinical placement by a structured written journal using Gibbs model of
reflection. It will allow students to reflect on their actions for clinical practice in future. This
reflective journal evaluates my experience of first clinical practice, my roles and
responsibilities in the nuclear medicine department. It also demonstrates my strengths, and
crucial learning during the clinical placement that improved my knowledge by using Gibbs
model of reflection. It also explains my experience as a student and will prepare myself for
the clinical practice in future(Boud, 2001).
(Boud, 2001) – This reference is to back up a statement about the use of journals and
improves student’s reflective practice in clinical training
My role in the team
During my first day of clinical placement I was quite anxious. My clinical educator called
me up and explained my roles and responsibilities during my first clinical practice in the
work field of nuclear medicine of. My role predominantly consisted of observing supervising
practitioners and seek guidance from them from them. I gained knowledge about the way
they deal with their patients, kind of interaction they have, the method of procedure,
observation of all aspects such as technical skills and analytical skills. I also learnt to respect

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and be patient enough while dealing with patients. As my first day consisted of just observing
and asking questions I realised that I must focus on gaining practical knowledge which
would help me in my career of clinical practice. I began to interact with patients by
identifying their referral cases and also analysed the requirements of the patients. I also
learnt about their medical history by interacting with them after taking an approval from
supervising technologist. Furthermore, as my clinical practice progressed towards the end of
it, I was given permission to identify a patient, attain all the necessary information required
for the scan, explain the imaging procedure to the patient and set up the camera and patient
position for the scan. Since, it was my first clinical placement my role was quite limited to
observe the supervising technologists and have a proper interaction with patients .My role
throughout the clinical placement did not vary much till the end. I also counselled and
provided proper support and guidance to manage the disease of a few patients. The patients
were educated in an effective manner to take proper rest and precautionary measures to
improve their health condition. Essentially, this placement introduced to me the hospital
environment of nuclear medicine which will be helpful in the growth of my career.
During my first placement I was first introduced to the nuclear medicine team by
my clinical educator. She explained the roles and the responsibilities of each key team
member. I was also introduced to how a patient’s procedure embarks in the nuclear medicine
department. My role in the team predominantly consisted of how much I wanted to get
involved as I was supervised by a senior .I was able to participate in several activities such as
interacting with patients, processing images, discussing imaging results with specialist
physician and making observations. My role in the team kept on varying throughout my
placement. During the first week I mainly observed my seniors how they performed their
duties such as bringing the patient into the imaging room, acquiring information, positioning
the patient and consulting the physician. I was given several opportunities to get accustomed

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to deal with patients and build my communication skills with patients. I also involved myself
in setting up the camera for the patient and also used to wipe down the bed with anti-bacterial
wipes. I helped in providing comfort to the patients with basic necessities such as pillows,
blankets and arm straps so that they can rest their hand. As I progressed into the second week
of placement, I was given a few more roles and responsibilities in team. I was given many
opportunities to interact with patients and there was a drastic improvement in my confidence
and communication levels. I was able to position patients for entire imaging procedures by
locating body landmarks and set up the camera in place. I became more involved with
patients and staff rather than just observing them. I was also allowed to process images for
the physicians by labelling the pictures and adjusting the intensities of the images.
Strengths and development needs
Throughout my clinical placement I was continuously reflecting each day in order to improve
my knowledge and practical skills. By the end of placement I was aware of my strengths and
weakness which would need improvement in future. I was able to apply academic knowledge
into practical skills, what I had learnt as a student such as identification of the best imaging
parameters for a bone scan patient or understanding the image that was displayed.
Throughout my clinical training I was aware of my position as a student and I did not allow
that to be my disadvantage rather I was not anxious to ask any questions about concepts that I
could not grasp at first go. I behaved in a professional manner and had proper communication
skills with the staff and all the patients during my placement. There were also patients in the
who suffered from severe depression so they were given proper counselling to make them
feel good about themselves. I identified another strength that further enhanced my role in the
team and improved my level of confidence. The hospital focuses on multicultural diversity
and they have interpreters for patients who cannot communicate in English. There were many
Arabic native speaking patients and as I come from an Arabic background, I was able to

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communicate with these patients and was also given an opportunity to translate to them about
scans reported by the specialist nuclear medicine physicians
Description
During the placement I interacted a lot with the patients who were recently been diagnosed
with cancer. There was a female patient of 29 years of age and it is quite young to get
diagnosed with breast cancer. The other patient was also a female of 58 years and she was
facing an emotional distraught as she had been diagnosed with cancer only a few days prior
to the nuclear medicine procedure. I was given the opportunity to interact with the 58 year
old female. The patient asked me the reason she was undergoing the scan and I became
flustered and the way in which I should explain her the reason .In reality the patient was
undergoing the scan to make sure that the breast cancer has not a metastatic one. My
supervising technologist had to intervene as he saw how emotional and depressed the patient
seemed . I observed how he handled the sensitive situation and how he comforted the patient,
I was able to realise that this imaging procedure will reflect on how the patient’s prognosis
will turn out and how important our patient care is.After reflecting on these situations I
realised that our nuclear medicine scans will help in determining its severity whether there is
metastatic spread or not. I realized the impact of our scans and how they may help the
specialist physicians in providing the best treatment for their patients. Further on I
recognized the importance of professional patient care and the level of empathy medical
radiations require. I also learnt about the impact it has on each patient (Kim, Kaplowitz &
Johnston, 2004).
Feelings
In the midst of each situation I was extremely overwhelmed in many aspects.Whilst dealing
with two cancer patients the elderly woman tremendously overcame her emotions, and the

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young woman was calm. As I interacted with the elderly patient I began confidently, but as I
could see her emotions I started to become more anxious and under pressure and she
suddenly asked me ‘Why am I doing this scan’. Prior to this my supervisors informed me
about dealing with cancer patients. There are some patients who are still unaware of being
diagnosed with cancer, so as nuclear medicine technologists we must consider this and be
careful with our words. At that moment I had no words and was unsure how to inform the
patient that we were looking for metastatic spread. I started imagining how she would feel if
I informed her about the purpose of the scan. I was unable to respond to her question and my
supervisor intervened with an open-ended question by enquiring if her oncologist had
informed her the reason behind the scan or she had been diagnosed with anything recently.
This opened the opportunity for the elderly woman to discuss about her disease and concerns.
I observed the manner with which my supervisor dealt with it professionally and how he was
empathetic and patient towards her .
When the younger woman was undergoing a screening procedure for metastatic
spread at the age of 29, although she was calm but I was anxious and emotional hoping for
the best outcome of her scan. I was able to interact with her easily yet I lacked confidence
and complete professional composure as I could not stop thinking about how young she was
and I discussed the same with my supervising technologist.
Evaluation
When I used to return home from placement every day, I used to reflect on each and every
experience with patients. I realized that I must take every single experience positively as a
student. There were positive and negative aspects of each scenario which helped in improving
my skills and experience so that I can tailor patient care to each patient in my career in future.
Reflecting back on each experience with emotionally overwhelmed patients or any other

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patients, where one word or action may scrutinize their experience.I realized the impact I
could make on patients and I was motivated to help them in every possible manner. Thinking
back to my first two encounters with cancer patients and other patients in general, I become
frustrated with the level of patient-care I provided. This is because patient care directly
affects the improvement in the health condition of the patient and also the overall treatment
journey (Pollak, Back &Tulsky, 2017).As a student I observed the way my fellow supervisors
provide quality care to all their patients and it helped them in emotional and mental
aspects. During my experience with the elderly female cancer patient who broke down in
tears, my supervisor communicated with complete confidence, asking if the patient needed
anything, or if she required to call someone .He also asked if she needed some water, and
even going out of his way to delay the scan procedure until she calmed down a bit, despite a
busy schedule and other patients waiting for their turn. I was also helpless in the situation and
was unable to communicate properly with her.I was also not sure how to express my empathy
as I had no words to counsel her. After my experience in the clinical placement, I discovered
that I needed to improve my confidence as a student and develop my communication skills
with patients .I also need to be empathetic and courteous while dealing with patients. I
understood that by improving my confidence level, I would be able to effectively
communicate with patients and provide professional patient care to them. It will also help me
to control my emotions so that I may be able to provide proper comfort to the patients while
dealing with emotional patients as I had experienced the same when I was communicating
with the elderly female patient.