Reflective Essay on Issues Encountered During Grad Program

This reflective essay explores clinical practice issues encountered by a novice nurse during a graduate program, focusing on a critical incident involving miscommunication and medication errors. Utilizing Gibbs' reflective model, the essay delves into the description of the situation, the nurse's feelings, an evaluation of the event, a thorough analysis, and a conclusion highlighting the importance of communication, teamwork, and accurate record-keeping in nursing. The essay concludes with an action plan for future practice, emphasizing the need for improved communication skills and a commitment to building strong relationships with colleagues and patients to enhance the quality of care. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Reflective Essay on issues encountered
during Grad program as a novice
nurses

Table of Content.
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
The novice nurse is explained as an individual who are working in the healthcare
profession for less than 1 year. Various clinical practice issues inform research problems and
these clinical problems are associated with day-to-day work. Several clinical issues are present in
the workplace such as inadequate staffing, stress, communication issue, management issues and
several safety issues (Garrett, Anthony and Jackson, 2018). The reflective practice is the ability
to reflect on individual actions which are associated with the engagement process of continuous
learning. These play a significant role in the identification of the strength as well as weaknesses
of the individual. These also give a reflection on the development of the skills in self-directed
learning to improve motivation and increase the quality of care. There is Gibbs's reflective model
is one of the most effective and famous cyclical models of reflection. This model is discovered
by Graham Gibbs in the year of 1988 as a self-reflection and management tool. This essay
includes a reflective essay on a clinical practice issue which are faced by the novice nurse during
the grab program (Smith, 2018).
MAIN BODY
There are various clinical practice issues that are present in the workplace that affects the
personal and professional life of the nurses. The inadequate staff management and less
interaction between the nursing staff increase the stress level in the workplace. One of the major
problems of novice nurses had been the lack of administrator and coordinator of the care team.
The Gibbs reflective model gives a framework for reflection on repeated experiences. It
has six stages that assist to engage as well as reflect on particular past experiences. The six stages
of the Gibbs model are description, feeling, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and the action plan
(Fadilah et. al., 2019).
The first stage of the Gibbs model includes the description of the situation. As a novice
nurse, I have faced many clinical practice issues during the grab program in the healthcare
center. Recently, I joined a healthcare organization where I observed the lack of communication
between the team members. There is a patient who is suffering from mental illness or dementia
and is admitted to the hospital under my supervision. I have paid more attention to that patient
and delivered high-quality care which is important for the patient health. As a novice nurse, I
have no experience in taking care of dementia patients. During the day shift, another nursing
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staff provides the medication to the patient without following the medication plan and they also
do not mention it in the patient record. The maintenance of the record is essential for the patients
and the other nursing staff which can help in assisting the patient during their medical treatment.
Due to the communication gap and lack of appropriate records I prescribed the same medicines
to the patient on the night shift which gives a negative effect on the patient's condition. These are
resulting in tachycardia, mild hypertension, and prolongation of the QT interval. Due to the
negative effect of overdose patients suffered from the severe condition. All these conditions
occur due to a lack of communication between me and other nursing staff as well as the patient.
Later on, the senior doctors and other nursing staff handle the critical situation of that patient
(Longo et. al., 2020).
The second step of the model is feeling which is associated with thoughts and description
feelings. Before the situation, I feel that I am doing my best and I give the best treatment to the
patient. After this situation, I feel that there is a mistake by the other nurse because they are not
preparing the proper chart and did not indicate the medication. I felt that other people think that
there is only my mistake because I did not give the proper medication. I also felt that there is a
communication gap between me and the other nurse. I must need to communicate with the other
staff and with the patient who is assisting me in providing the best care to the patient (Lin et. al.,
2021).
At that time, I did not feel that the condition of the patient had been resolved at all. I am
evaluated that the doctors and nurses are managing the situation properly at a time. I have also
evaluated that there is a need for better communication and healthy relationship between the
patients and other nursing staff. Maintaining records is essential for the nursing staff to deliver
better medical treatment to the patient. The nursing staff is more responsible to maintain accurate
and contemporaneous patient records. It can help to assist the patient in an effective way which
can lead to giving positive health outcomes for the patient. From this situation, I have also
evaluated that I need to maintain a good relationship with the patients and other nursing staff.
(Taniguchi et. al., 2020).
This is the fourth step of the Gibbs reflective cycle which is to make sense of the
situation and understand what happened. The situation was made worse by my actions and I have
analyzed I did not communicate well with the other nurse. The patient is sufferings from severe
dementia, thus he will not able to recognize treatments that are given to him. It is most important
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to maintain the appropriate record which can help in delivering high-quality care with proper
medication. The other nurses also need to know the importance of the daily patient chart. I also
analyzed that nurses play a significant role in patient care and create a positive patient
experience. Strong communication between patients and nurses can increase patient satisfaction
scores. I also realized that I should check the record and consult with the other team member
which is helping me to give the best care to the patient. I should also be taking the feedback from
the patients which helps me to analyze the ongoing treatment of patients (Young et. al., 2022).
The conclusion is the fifth step of the reflective cycle which is associated with the
thinking of the people about what they have learned. I have concluded that the interaction
between the patient and other staff is very essential. These can be achieved by good patient-
provider skills and nurses can communicate well with the patient. Good interaction with the
patient can help in analyzing the patient satisfaction by which they feel comfortable with their
treatment. There is also a need to boost nurse teamwork and care coordination. Good teamwork
skills and good coordination also build a positive experience with the patient. The nurses need to
address patients' requirements as well as other needs with being fully engaged with the patients.
Good communication skill and maintaining patient record is more essential for nurses because
record gives accurate data about the patient's health condition which can help in their further
medical treatment. These provide the appropriate information about the patient to other staff
relies upon when taking over a patient's care. These assist in the determination of the nurse's
professional judgment as well as local standards. The staff member needs to know about the
nurse's notes and continue caring for the patient. The nurses should follow the SMART model
which is essential for planning care. These are needed to write up the notes as soon as possible
after an event, within 24 hours for making clear subsequent alterations or addition (Lebow,
2019).
In the future, I will ensure that I will build as well as maintain a good relationship with
the doctors, nurses and patients. I am working with several nurses during my grab program and I
will state communicate with them. These communications assist me in the provide the best care
treatment to the patient. I plan to improve my communication skill to build a good relationship
with others who are assisting me to achieve my goals.
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CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it has been concluded that good clinical practice is the ability to
effectively solve complex nursing issues as well as to give proper or high-quality healthcare
treatment to the patient. Some issues are centered around improving patient outcomes. These
also include the reflection on the clinical practice issue which are faced by nurses at the time of
working in a care center. The reflection is assist in evaluating the weaknesses and the strength of
the nurses. Due to the communication gap and lack of proper administrators nursing staff and
patients face many challenges. The reflection is based on the Gibbs reflection model which
considers the six stages. These are analysis, description, evaluation, feeling, action plan as well
as the conclusion. These help to encourage the individual to make sense of the conditions that
occur in the workplace. The action plan is assisting in doing better in the same situation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Fadilah, L.N. and et. al., 2019. The Effect of Reflective Learning on Childbirth Care
Competence of Midwifery Students. Open Journal of Nursing, 9(03), p.209.
Garrett, B.M., Anthony, J. and Jackson, C., 2018. Using mobile augmented reality to enhance
health professional practice education. Current Issues in Emerging eLearning, 4(1),
p.10.
Lebow, J.L., 2019. Current issues in the practice of integrative couple and family
therapy. Family process, 58(3), pp.610-628.
Lin, C.C. and et. al., 2021. Enhancing reflection on medical and surgical nursing among nursing
students: A participatory action research study. Nurse Education Today, 102, p.104935.
Longo, J.P.F. and et. al., 2020. Issues affecting nanomedicines on the way from the bench to the
market. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 8(47), pp.10681-10685.
Smith, D., 2018. Evidencing your lifelong learning with e-Portfolio. The Biochemist, 40(5),
pp.22-24.
Taniguchi, T. and et. al., 2020. Contemporary issues in severe aortic stenosis: review of current
and future strategies from the contemporary outcomes after surgery and medical
treatment in patients with severe aortic stenosis registry. Heart, 106(11), pp.802-809.
Young, G.S. and et. al., 2022. Clinical 7T MRI for epilepsy care: Value, patient selection,
technical issues, and outlook. Journal of Neuroimaging.
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