NURBN2011 Critical Reflection: Gibbs Cycle in Clinical Nursing

This report presents a critical reflection on a nursing student's clinical practice, specifically the administration of an injection to a patient. The student utilizes Gibbs' reflective cycle to analyze the experience, detailing the description of the event, their feelings, and an evaluation of the process. The analysis highlights both strengths, such as maintaining composure and demonstrating adequate knowledge, and weaknesses, including a lack of practice and initial nervousness. The student identifies areas for improvement, such as gaining more practical experience and managing stress in a clinical setting. An action plan is outlined, emphasizing the importance of practice and revisiting academic knowledge. The report concludes with a positive outlook, expressing increased confidence and a desire for further clinical experiences.

Running Head: CRITICAL REFLECTION
Title
Name
Institutional Affiliation

CRITICAL REFLECTION 2
Critical Reflection
Introduction
In this project, I am critically evaluating my clinical practice in light of Gibbs cycle.
This process will help me draw on conclusive deduction regarding my strengths and
weaknesses in the fieldwork (Oxford Brookes University, n.d.). Analysis of my clinical
practice in light of Gibbs Cycle is elucidated hereunder.
Reflection using Gibb’s cycle
Description
I examined Antonio Cabrini who was suffering from nausea. Quite recently he had
had his knee replacement surgery. After a thorough check-up, I was tasked with
administering him an injection. Before administering the injection a couple of tasks were
needed to be performed. Before administering the injection, I reached another nurse, senior
and experienced to seek validation of the injection suggested by me. Then checked store for
availability of the required injection. It did not take me long to find the required injection.
Then I checked the date of expiry of the injection. After confirming that it is not expired I
filled in the syringe and checked the fluidity of the injection before administering it. Before
administering the injection, I made sure that I cleansed my hands adequately. Following this,
was the process of administering the injection. The injection was intramuscular one and I
administered it quite effectively.
Analysis
The whole process went smoothly and completed it with ease. No accidental mishap
for example breaking of syringe or unstoppable bleeding happened. This has given me
significant confidence and I feel myself pretty much suitable for this profession. Researches
have shown that the profession of nursing is filled with trauma and stress. (Sharma, Davey,

CRITICAL REFLECTION 3
Davey, Shukla, Shrivastava & Bansal, 2014). This one experience has made me realize truth
of this notion. Moreover, I have learnt that while working in this profession, one must ensure
that one’s own health, mental peace and composure is not disturbed (Roberts & Grubb,
2013). I have also realized that staying successful by putting in devotion in this profession is
not possible until and unless one puts in oneself whole heartedly into it. Nursing profession is
quite demanding as one after other stressed, traumatic, injured and ailing patient needs be
checked on. This derails ones energy and makes the person utterly fatigued. The endurance
needed to overcome this comes only by dint of passion and professionalism (Lopez et al.,
2018). In the end, I have also realized importance of clinical practice in nursing as practice is
the sole way of overcoming professional hindrances and time-delays so as to ensure
deliverance of the best service (Sharif & Masoumi, 2005).
Feelings
Being a nurse still under process, the trivial task of administering injection seemed
quite a herculean one to me. In order to ensure that no shortcoming comes into action, I tried
my best to keep my nerves strong. I did not panic; instead, I performed all the tasks calmly
and with sheer order and arrangement. I was feeling a strange feeling inside because I am not
exposed to these conditions so extensively.
Moreover, when there is a feeling of being checked and evaluated, pressure itself
develops. During all this, I was equally conscious of the wellbeing of the patient. My stress
did not pave the way to misbehave with the patient. I spoke politely and gently and assisted
him in all possible means. My intuition compelled me to seek approval from a senior
registered nurse. I was calm while administering the injection and after successfully doing it,
I felt accomplished. I pretty much recognise these feelings as my passion for this profession
(Roberts & Grubb, 2013).

CRITICAL REFLECTION 4
Evaluation
I recognise it took me a bit longer to check on this patient. I can analyse two core
reasons behind this delay. First of all, I am not experienced in checking on patients.
Therefore, the usual tasks took me a bit longer before they were completed.
Moreover, due to lack of experience, I was supposed to seek approval from a senior
registered nurse as well. Secondly, I was a bit nervous as well as stressed. I had to put on
more efforts to keep myself calm, behave politely with the patient and administer the
injection effectively. Lack of practice made be a recall every next process. Though recalling
stuff was not hard, but it took some moments extra.
Apart from this, I notice I was not scared at the sight of injection. I did not hold my
breath while injecting medicine; instead, I did as normally as any professional was supposed
to do. This gave me boost and strength both morally as well as mentally.
Conclusion
From the conclusion made above, I can effectively figure out that I need to work on a
couple of weaknesses as well as strengths. For the strengths, I need to polish them more so as
to make them my competitive edges. For the weaknesses, I need to overcome them as soon as
possible. Nursing is such a delicate and fragile profession that a slight mistake, error or
negligence can cost the life of someone (Lopez, Castner, Pruinelli, Schoville, Piscotty, Farag,
& Monsen, 2018). Keeping this in mind, I have concluded that my strengths are following.
 Ability to stay calm and professional
 Adequate knowledge of knowledge required in the field
 Passion aided by the pursuit to work better than before
 Successful engagement with the patients making them feel comfortable and at ease
As far as my weaknesses are concerned, these are the following.
 Lack of practice

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 Though I can stay calm and polite but mentally I tend to build up the pressure
 Taking a bit longer than the required time.
Action Plan
The fundamental consideration to be taken into account before venturing on anything else
is the idea of practice and hard work. No professional can achieve unprecedented success
until and unless hard work, devotion and above all practice is added to the professional life.
Apart from this general workout that I will need to put into practice without any delay, some
other more particular and specific actions are enlisted hereunder.
1. Getting used to the stressed and pressurised environment both by dint of practice as
well as observation. This will take a bit longer to get accomplished (Sharma et al.,
2014).
2. Revising and revisiting all the knowledge learnt during the academic time period.
This is direly needed because when a crisis arises, a nurse does not have time to recall
things. All that needs to be done then is only action and that too oriented one. In the
end, I would like to share that this clinical practice experience served as an eye-
opener for me.
I am now in a better position to recognise both professional as well as personal needs and
demands of this field. This successful experience has given me confidence. The patient was
satisfied with my job, and this encourages me to achieve better and more profound
engagement with the patients. I am really looking forward to more of such experiences so as
to get into the profession as soon as I complete my degree.

CRITICAL REFLECTION 6
Bibliography
Lopez, K. D., Castner, J., Pruinelli, L., Schoville, R., Piscotty, R. J., Farag, A., ... & Monsen,
K. A. (2018). Shared Passion at the Nexus of Nursing Informatics, Systems, Policy,
and Research: Midwest Nursing Research Society Advances the State of the
Science. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, Vol. 36(1), pp. 5-7.
Roberts, R. K., & Grubb, P. L. (2014). The consequences of nursing stress and need for
integrated solutions. Rehabilitation nursing, Vol. 39(2), pp. 62-69.
Sharif, F., & Masoumi, S. (2005). A qualitative study of nursing student experiences of
clinical practice. BMC nursing, Vol. 4(1), pp. 6.
Sharma, P., Davey, A., Davey, S., Shukla, A., Shrivastava, K., & Bansal, R. (2014).
Occupational stress among staff nurses: Controlling the risk to health. Indian journal
of occupational and environmental medicine, Vol. 18(2), pp. 52 Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4280777/ [6th April, 2019]
Oxford Brookes University. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.brookes.ac.uk/students/upgrade/study-skills/reflective-writing-gibbs/ [6th
April, 2019]