Reflective Journal: Nursing Experience in Pediatric Ward, KFMC

This assignment is a reflective journal written by a nursing student about their experience in a pediatric ward at King Fahd Medical City (KFMC). The student utilizes the Gibbs reflective cycle to analyze their experiences, feelings, evaluations, and actions. The journal begins with an introduction to reflective practice and the Gibbs model, followed by a detailed description of the placement, including encounters with children suffering from chronic diseases and child abuse. The student expresses feelings of frustration and impatience, and evaluates both positive and negative aspects of the experience, such as gaining knowledge of dealing with children versus lacking certain skills. The analysis reveals the student's perceived incompetence in the pediatric ward due to a lack of skill mix and management skills. The conclusion summarizes the key learnings and identifies areas for improvement, while the action plan outlines strategies for developing nursing management skills, improving patience, and enhancing communication with patients and their families. The student references several academic sources to support their reflections and analysis.

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

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Introduction:
Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on the action in order to engage in a process of
learning. The reflective practice is a key skill of a nurse which enables a nurse to manage the
impact of caring for others on a daily basis (Bachnick et al. 2018). The Gibbs reflection is
proposed by American sociologist and psychologist Graham in 1998 which provided nursing
practice a unique direction. Gibbs Reflective Cycle encourages people to think systematically
about the experiences they had during a specific situation, event or activity. The Gibbs reflection
cycle has six-part such as description, feeling evaluation, analysis, and conclusion (Flagg 2015).
Description helps to reflect on the experience one gained, feeling aid in describing one’s
feeling during experience, evaluation highlighted the good and bad about experiences, analysis
part help to critically identify the situation, conclusion helps to identify the strength and
weakness of a nurse and finally action plans help to improve my clinical practice (Bauchat,
Seropian and Jeffries 2016).Therefore , Gibb’s reflection model is advantageous for nurses
because it helps a nurse to evaluate their situation and nursing practices in order to come up with
better interventions for the nursing practice. This paper will reflect on experience during
placement as a nurse in the following paragraphs.
Description:
In the first week of my rotation in the pediatric ward, I was encountered with a
significant number of children. Majority of the children were suffering from chronic disease and
they required constant clinical attention during their hospital admission. I become very
emotional after seeing the children suffering. For example, I encountered a child with delayed
developmental stage and another child being the victim of child abuse which made me emotional

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and influenced my future practice. Moreover, many children in the pediatric ward were crying
seeing the doctors with a white coat which made their parents anxious. I was not able to ask for
the medical history and informed consent from children which made my job difficult. This
experienced I have gained in my first week affected my quality of care and I was transferred to
the medical adult ward.
Feeling:
This domain will elaborate on my feeling which I felt during my placement. After
experiencing those issues in my placement, I become frustrated and tried to change my
placement. I was feeling upset constantly about the experiences I felt which affected my nursing
practice. I constantly become emotional after seeing the children suffering from the health issues
which hampered my practice. I became impatient when I was treating children highlighted the
gap in my nursing practiced. However, after meeting I was very excited to work in the clinic
with Dr.Abdulaziz because I feel motivated and encouraged to explore my experience.
Moreover, I was very excited to work with him because I felt that he is going to teach me new
things which would be helpful for me to manage my anxiety.
Evaluation:
This domain will illustrate the optimistic and pessimistic experiences gained during the
placement in the pediatric word. The positive experience I had during this placement is I gain
the knowledge of dealing with children which would further help me to facilitate my future
practice. Moreover, I had the opportunity of meeting Dr.Abdulaziz who changed my mind about
the pediatric ward and he courage me and motivates me to learn from the experiences which I
would integrate in my future practice. However, the negative experience I had was that I felt lack

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the skill mix and management skills since I was unaware of techniques to deal with children
which made me incompetent health care professional in other clinical sectors. Moreover, in the
pediatric ward, the children tend to cry because of the separation anxiety from their parents
which made their parents interfering because of the psychological distress such as high level of
anxiety they were exposed to. This distress is usually reflected through their inappropriate
behavior which made me frustrated as health professionals to deal with both parents and children
and affected my practice.
Analysis:
This part of the reflect cycle will discuss the analysis of the situation I have experienced
in the pediatric ward. From the above situation, I have gained the knowledge that I am
incompetent to work in the pediatric ward because of the lack of skill mix. In the clinical
practice, a nurse should acquire diverse skills in order to be dedicated to the nursing profession
and serving the society to promote the wellbeing of public health. The skill mix encompasses
technical skills, patient care skills, cultural competency skills, advocacy skills, critical thinking
skills as well as decision-making skills. These skills make the nurses to be dynamic in their
practice as well as engage in the safe, responsive patient-centered care. This skill mix is crucial
in the nursing practice because of the shortage of nursing workforce. The nurses are required to
serve in every field in order to meet the demand of health care sectors. The lack of management
skill is also highlighted in the situation discussed above. For example, I am competent to deal
with adult patients since I can engage them in communication and obtain all the crucial
information such as medical histories, informed consent. Moreover, I am able to provide person-
centered care to the adults by incorporating them in the care procedure and prioritizing their
decision. In the case of children, I am unable to obtain informed consent from children and

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become impatience, which affected my practice. Furthermore, I lack the self-control since I
usually become emotional lm after discovering children with health issues which would
influence my practice. I am lacking the skill of patience to deal with children in the pediatric
ward which resulted in the gap in nursing practice. A nurse should have immense patience,
empathy, self-control to deal with a variety of patient with different signs and symptoms
(Hofmeyer et al. 2018). Therefore, nurses should possess each skill discussed above to be
dynamic in their practice.
Conclusion:
On concluding note it can be concluded that the reflective practice is a key skill of a
nurse which enable a nurse to manage the impact of caring for others on a daily basis. The Gibbs
reflection cycle has six-part such as description, feeling evaluation, analysis, and conclusion.
From the above experience, I have gained the understanding that I have few skills such as
communications skills, team working skills, empathy, and respect towards the parents which I
would incorporate in my future practice. However, I have a certain weakness which I required to
improve in order to be a competent nurse to work in a variety of domain of health care. I felt lack
the skill mix and management skills since I was unaware of techniques to deal with children
which made me incompetent health care professional in other clinical sectors. Sometimes, I am
unable to manage the anxiety of the patient which affected my future practice. I felt lack the
skill mix and management skills since I was unaware of techniques to deal with children which
made me incompetent health care professional in other clinical sectors. I lack the self-control
since I usually become emotional lm after discovering children with health issues which would
affect my practice. I am lacking the skill of patience to deal with children in the pediatric ward

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which resulted in the gap in nursing practice. These skills I feel I require to improve in order to
be a potential nurse which would help me to be dynamic in different clinical practice.
Action plan:
This part of the assignment would provide the action plan which is required to improve
the clinical practice. In this case, I would require to develop my nursing management skills by
engaging in the training session. This will help me to be more empathetic, compassionate and
manage every clinical domain with equal competency. I am lacking the skill of patience to deal
with children in the pediatric ward which resulted in the gap in nursing practice. In order to
develop patience, it is required to engage in the meditation session once a week ((Urden, Stacy
and Lough 2017). This will help me to gain the patience of dealing with children and their
anxious parents. The meditation will help me to control my emotions while dealing with
patients. I would enroll my name in different workshops and training process to develop my
management skills of handling family members such as parents of the children (Koehler et al.
2018). I would seek assistance from my supervisors and medical consultants who would help me
to be confident, empathetic and compassionate in my nursing practice. Moreover, beside
motivating and encouraging me, my consultant trusted me and not all the physicians will do the
same which elevated my confidence level. I was very lucky to gain the opportunity to work him.
This lesson will help me to be more aware of my practice which I would apply in my future
practice.

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References:
Bachnick, S., Ausserhofer, D., Baernholdt, M., Simon, M., and Match RN study group. 2018.
Patient-centered care, nurse work environment and implicit rationing of nursing care in Swiss
acute care hospitals: A cross-sectional multi-center study. International journal of nursing
studies, 81, 98-106.
Bauchat, J. R., Seropian, M., & Jeffries, P. R. 2016. Communication and empathy in the patient-
centered care model—why simulation-based training is not optional. Clinical Simulation in
Nursing, 12(8), 356-359.
Deane, W. H., and Fain, J. A. 2016. Incorporating Peplau’s theory of interpersonal relations to
promote holistic communication between older adults and nursing students. Journal of Holistic
Nursing, 34(1), 35-41.
Urden, L. D., Stacy, K. M. and Lough, M. E. 2017. Critical care nursing: diagnosis and
management. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Flagg, A. J. 2015. The role of patient-centered care in nursing. Nursing Clinics, 50(1), 75-86.
Hofmeyer, A., Toffoli, L., Vernon, R., Taylor, R., Klopper, H. C., Coetzee, S. K.,and Fontaine,
D. 2018. Teaching compassionate care to nursing students in a digital learning and teaching
environment. Collegian, 25(3), 307-312.
Hofmeyer, A., Toffoli, L., Vernon, R., Taylor, R., Klopper, H. C., Coetzee, S. K., and Fontaine,
D. 2018. Teaching compassionate care to nursing students in a digital learning and teaching
environment. Collegian, 25(3), 307-312.

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Koehler, A.R., Davies, S., Smith, L.R., Hooks, T., Schanke, H., Loeffler, A., Carr, C. and
Ratzlaff, N., 2016. Impact of a stand-alone course in gerontological nursing on undergraduate
nursing students' perceptions of working with older adults: A Quasi-experimental study. Nurse
education today, 46, pp.17-23.