University Nursing: Reflective Discussion on Enrolled Nurse Practice

This discussion post presents a reflective account of a student's journey as an enrolled nurse, focusing on their experiences in various healthcare settings, including paediatric, oncology, and mental health wards, culminating in their current role in a surgical ward at Hollywood Private Hospital. The author emphasizes the importance of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) standards, codes, and guidelines in shaping their practice and decision-making, particularly in the context of theatre nursing and anaesthetic nursing. The reflection highlights the value of active engagement, proper documentation, and critical thinking in providing quality patient care, especially for surgical patients. The author expresses a commitment to continuous professional development by adhering to NMBA standards to enhance their skills and knowledge in the field of nursing.

Running head: REFLECTIVE DISCUSSION
REFLECTIVE DISCUSSION
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1REFLECTIVE DISCUSSION
Introduction:
Nursing education has helps the nurses a lot in serving patients in a better way (Shin,
Park, & Kim, 2015). And I would like to confess that I always was passionate about helping
others, managing health care, learning of new things and I have been very active in
investigating medical situations. And now as an enrolled nurse, I have got the opportunity to
express myself and learn knew thing in a field where I love working. This assignment is a
medium to express my experience as a nurse and to reflect my knowledge that I gained
throughout my development process as an enrolled nurse. The assignment will focus on the
NMBA standards, codes and guidelines, how these standards helped me in developing as a
better nurse (NMBA, 2019).
Discussion:
I belong to a remote area in Australia, and it is underprivileged as compared to other
areas. When I was very young, I observed that we had a very poor medical health facility. It
was then when I decided to become a nurse and help people by providing them with proper
health care service. After I graduated from college and joined as a nurse, I was trained about
how to care for people, provide medical facilities and other medical practices that is required
as a basic medical treatment. but that was not enough to become a better nurse, so I practiced
nursing in various other fields such as paediatric ward, oncology ward, mental health centre,
drug rehab unit and each centre taught me something new about me and my practice. And
now I am posted as an enrolled nurse at Hollywood Private Hospital, specifically in the
surgical ward. Here I learnt about how proper care and active behaviour is important for
quality nursing practice because all these surgical patients are serious cases and needed to be
handled with proper care, a little fault can cause a major problem. As I have been working in
the surgical ward for so many years, I have developed a special interest in theatre nursing, as
it is similar to surgical nursing, only the difference is, in theatre nursing I will get a chance to

2REFLECTIVE DISCUSSION
be in operation theatres and assist the surgical process. According to NMBA (2019) standard
2, the RN practice rely on purposeful engaging in active beneficial and professional
relationship with client and other staffs working in medical service (NMBA, 2019). As an
enrolled nurse in theatre nursing, active engagement and proper documentation is required
with the patient and other staffs to provide a better treatment (Jeon et al., 2015). Because
these surgical patients are a critical case, a single error can cause a major harm to the patient
(Ingvarsdottir & Halldorsdottir, 2018). The most important part in the theatre nursing is
anaesthetic nursing, and to work in a theatre nursing sector, I need to know a lot about the
anaesthetic nursing process. In order to become a better nurse in the field of theatre nursing I
need to work on my thinking strategies and practice my nursing through reflection. As stated
in NMBA (2019) standard 1, RN requires to use their thinking ability and reflection practice
to develop their decision making capability (NMBA, 2019).
Conclusion:
I need to focus on these standards in order to develop myself in the field of nursing. In
order to conclude I can state that, these practices can help be develop myself as a nurse. And
to practice it in a better way, I must follow the NMBA standard for nursing.

3REFLECTIVE DISCUSSION
Reference:
Ingvarsdottir, E., & Halldorsdottir, S. (2018). Enhancing patient safety in the operating
theatre: from the perspective of experienced operating theatre nurses. Scandinavian
journal of caring sciences, 32(2), 951-960.
Jeon, Y., Lahtinen, P., Meretoja, R., & Leino-Kilpi, H. (2015). Anaesthesia nursing education
in the Nordic countries: Literature review. Nurse education today, 35(5), 680-688.
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. (2019). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
Enrolled nurse standards for practice. Retrieved from
https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/codes-guidelines-statements/
professional-standards/enrolled-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx
Shin, S., Park, J. H., & Kim, J. H. (2015). Effectiveness of patient simulation in nursing
education: meta-analysis. Nurse education today, 35(1), 176-182.