Reflective Essay: A Nurse's Experience of Life Crisis During COVID-19

This reflective essay delves into a nurse's personal and professional experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on a critical incident involving a patient with severe symptoms and her child. The reflection covers the nurse's initial feelings of nervousness, stress, and a lack of compassion due to the challenging circumstances and perceived patient choices. It examines how these feelings impacted the nurse's ability to provide optimal care and the subsequent negative consequences for the patient. The essay further explores the importance of compassion in healthcare, the need for specialized care facilities, and the significance of maintaining ethical and professional standards even in crisis situations. Ultimately, the reflection highlights the lessons learned regarding dedication, empathy, and the continuous need for improvement in nursing practice.

Life Crisis

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Reporting.....................................................................................................................................1
Responding..................................................................................................................................1
Relating........................................................................................................................................2
Reasoning....................................................................................................................................3
Reconstructing.............................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Nurses are also known as Midwives. The term midwife is derived from the word mid
means with and wife means woman so, it meant with women, that person who is with women at
childbirth. Since I am working as a nurse in a hospital, it is my responsibility to assess, observe
and monitor the patient. In this project work, a reflection of nurses will be discussed on life
crises.
MAIN BODY
Reporting
The event, I will be reflecting on happened whilst I was working on the Covid ward
during my 3rd month of qualified nursing. At the time of the Covid- pandemic, we all were facing
the worst situation. At that time, a women's service user was present in the ward, who had been
admitted because of Covid -19 severe Symptoms. The woman was suffering from a fever of
39.8'C, a cough with a runny nose, and also showed the symptoms of shortness of breath. She
also had problems with communication (Tuohy, 2019). A 12-year-old baby was also with her but
he was asymptomatic 5 days ago that lady and baby flew into Australia from PNG. Therefore, it
may be a chance that she was infected during her traveling. After appearing with the symptoms
of Covid 19, that baby and lady were immediately shifted to the hospital from the hotel, where
she was quarantined for a fixed period. Baby Covid test at that time could not possible because
of invasive procedures of testing. The main issue was there to take care of that baby child who
had no symptoms till that time but there were more possibilities that in the future he might show
the symptom or might not. Since the baby was in touch with his mother, there hundred percent
chance that he had an infection. Before that time we never faced that type of crisis so, as a nurse
student, I had no idea how should I had to face that situation. Before that time, I never faced
pandemic conditions so, I had no experience to handle that situation correctly (Snowdon, 2018).
Responding
Before that incident occurred, I was thinking that the role of nurses is too easy in health
care. But after that time I felt that as a nurse student my responsibilities are not too easy as I
thought earlier. At the time of the incident, I had only 3 months of experience as a nurse student
and I m not sure about my position in the ward. Therefore, I feel very nervous. In addition, the
Covid pandemic had made the global situation very worst (Mwebe, 2021). There was no
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appropriate information and medication for Covid 19 infection. At the time of the incident, when
that lady had been admitted to the hospital with her 12-year-old baby, at that time I was
depressed and stressed due to the worst situation in the world. Due to the hospital's tense and
anxious atmosphere, I felt very stressed. Since I was very new in this field so never faced this
type of situation earlier. At that time when I saw that lady's situation and her baby, I was scared.
She had a severe problem of shortness of breath and also there was a shortage of oxygen in the
hospital. Her baby was too little, and also need a carer and a safe environment. I felt a lack of
compassion for that woman because in the Covid situation everyone had known about the risk of
prevalence of that infectious disease. Still, she preferred to travel from one country to another
and endangered her child (Munje, 2021).
Relating
As a registered nurse student my experience during the time of Covid 19 was not good
was not too good. But that bad experiences led me to an increased understanding of the service
and my role as a nurse practitioner within the healthcare team. My role was to assist the service
user, evaluate the health of the service user, recommend laboratory tests and diagnostic,
prescribe and administer medication, provide support to patients, reads the results of the test, and
manage the treatment side effect. But, as I mentioned earlier and told about my feeling of
anxiety, stress, and lack of compassion, I had felt that it was becoming a barrier in my profession
in that lady's case (Luby, 2020). I feel that due to my feeling, I did not fulfill my responsibility
completely as a nurse. As we know that compassion in healthcare with the patient has been
related with a positive impact on the experience of the patient and several patient-reported
results, specifically, decreased the burden of patient symptoms, enhance the quality of life, and
even an increment in the quality of hospitals rating. While compassion is identified as a standard
of nursing profession and care. Therefore, a lack of compassion can show a negative impact on
the work of nursing and the patient health care experience. A lack of compassion in my
profession has been associated with an enhancement in the cost of healthcare, family complaints,
negative medical consequence, and adverse medical events. In the case of that lady, I had a lack
of compassion toward her because I thought he took the risk intensionally during the Covid
situation and endangered her 12-year-old baby's life. As a result, I could not concentrate on work
in the case of that lady (Kokkinos, 2022). Due to this, a bad connection was established between
her and me which showed a negative impact on her health. Compassion is a basic attitude to
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medical application and it is a core component of medical health care. Since Covid 19 is an
infectious disease and it became very worst till that time. Therefore, Covid patients needed to get
nursing care with compassion, which assists them to heal as soon as possible. In the case of that
lady, I never felt compassion for her which was creating a barrier for me to give my cent percent
to her. Due to this kind of unprofessional behavior, her condition became too worst in few days
after admitted to the hospital (Khamees, et. al., 2022). After that, she was admitted to the ICU
where she required oxygen. As a registered nurse I feel that I had not fulfilled my responsibility
completely. My weaknesses like stress, lack of confidence, and compassion became dominant in
my job during that days and I could not give my service completely to that woman and her baby
(Kennedy, Jewell, Hickey, 2020).
Reasoning
According to the reports of that woman, she was suffering from the Covid- 19, and the
main issue in the case of that woman as she had a baby, who also traveled with her from PNG to
Australia and lived with her in the hotel. After a few days later of traveling, she had some
symptoms of Covid-19 like runny nose, high fever, cough, and shortness of breath. After getting
the symptom she had admitted to the hospital. However, her 12 years old baby had no symptoms
of Coronavirus but he was in contact with her mother. Therefore, he was also admitted to the
hospital. Since the prevalence of Covid is too fast and at that time there was no medication for
these infectious diseases so, it became too crucial to take some precautions like, should always
using hand sensitizers, should avoid exposure outer atmosphere as much as possible, should
avoid traveling and so on. But in the case of that lady, the main issue for their symptom was that
she was flown from PNG (Kelly, 2022). The patient was traveling while having the symptoms of
COVID 19 and it might possible that people who came in contact were also got affected by her.
During a pandemic, it was very difficult to handle such a large number of the patient when the
world was suffering from a shortage of health equipment and medicines. In the case of infants, it
becomes very tough to save their lives because of their weak defensive mechanisms. The child
was not able to take care of himself and his mother was already suffering from COVID 19. this
made the situation very critical for the little one. The woman needs to feed her child but in the
given case study it is not possible because the mother was infected. The child has suffered more
because of his mother's carelessness (Joyce, Jackson, 2021). It became very hard to treat infants
because they did not have as many symptoms as adults do. Children had to suffer from an
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asymptomatic condition of Covid-19. In the given scenario when the woman was admitted to the
hospital and nobody was there to take of her child. A child could not survive without his mother
and died. The child's death made the patient suffer from depression and her situation became
more critical. She was not taking the medicines properly and denying to take her meal on time.
As she was not having the meal on time, her immunity got weakened and she was not able to
move even. It was very tough for her also to deal with the current situation where she lost her
baby and suffered from COVID too. She was suffering mentally as well as physically
(JENNINGS, et. al., 2021).
Reconstructing
From the given case scenario, it has been concluded that health care professionals need to
be dedicated to their profession no matter whoever the patient they are dealing with. Immediate
care facilities also need to be available in case of emergence. Special care facilities are required
to treat infants. All the medications and health types of equipment need to be available to handle
such a large number of patients. The health care professional may request to the government that
all the migrators would have their COVID test before they reach their destination. They need to
carry their test report while traveling and it will be helpful to stop the prevalence. Migrators need
to keep in a special ward that is separated from the general ward. Migrators need extra care and
attention in case they would be tested positive. Children under the age of 15 need a child
specialist to ensure their safety (Howard, 2021). A child care specialist is more aware of the
health condition of an infant and thus required to be consulted if a child gets infected. Health
care professionals need to maintain compassion and sympathy for the patient and his loved ones.
A doctor always needs to communicate politely with the patient and his family to make them feel
comfortable (Barksby, 2021). Talking rudely can make patients feel discomfort and may leave
the hospital without getting the treatments. A doctor is always responsible to full fill all the
requirements of the patient to save his life. There is a need to ensure the safety of co-workers to
ensure patient safety. Doctors make people aware of signs and symptoms and also recommend
stopping the prevalence. Doctors also go to the rural areas to provide them with all the essential
medicines because they do not get access to health facilities equally. They would make people
familiar with the prevalence and treatments to remove the stigma of COVID 19 and other
communicable diseases (Guy, et. al., 2020). Free medicines and other essential requirements
need to be distributed among vulnerable people and doctors must ensure that they do not get
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treated like other patients. Health care professional also instructs healthcare workers to ensure
patient safety (Ghanbari, Nowroozi, 2022).
CONCLUSION
From the given case study, it has been concluded that health care providers must maintain
the general health of the patient through the application of procedures and principles of modern
medicine. Health care providers or doctors must fulfill the healthcare needs and should provide
quality health service. Doctors always need to treat their patients politely to make them feel
comfortable.
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REFERENCES
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occupational therapy supervision processes: A mixed method study. Australian
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Howard, V. (2021). Undergraduate mental health nursing students’ reflections in gaining
understanding and skills in the critical appraisal of research papers–An exploration of
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