Reflective Journal Entries: Pharmacy Practice and Patient Care

This assignment presents a student's reflective journal entries on various aspects of pharmacy practice. The entries cover several key themes, including communication with patients and colleagues, patient adherence interventions, conflict resolution among healthcare professionals, interventions to prevent bedsores, and addressing nurse burnout. Each entry details a specific scenario or experience, followed by the student's reflections on the situation, their analysis of the issues, and their proposed solutions or insights gained. The journal entries highlight the importance of effective communication, patient-centered care, and the need for continuous improvement in pharmacy practice to enhance patient outcomes and professional well-being. The student reflects on the impact of these experiences on their future practice, emphasizing the development of skills in areas such as communication, conflict management, and patient education.

Pharmacy reflective
journal entries

TABLE OF CONTENTS
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 1.............................................................................................1
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 2.............................................................................................1
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 3.............................................................................................2
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 4.............................................................................................2
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 5.............................................................................................2

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 1
This entry reflects on my interaction with a nurse while handling the case of a patient
with dementia. I have always known the importance of workplace communication as aspects
associated with it. Moreover, I have had the intention to focus on the tips of effective
communication while conversation with colleagues. This incident strengthened my knowledge as
well as skills of communication. The patient named Anna, was 80 year old woman who often
became frustrated and adopted self-harming behaviour. That day when I went on routine
monitoring of patients, I found a nurse struggling to administer medication to Mrs Anna. The
nurse was making efforts to communicate politely and convince her to take medicine but Mrs
Anna was consistently refusing to do so. I went to the nurse and advised her to adopt assertive
style of communication. Moreover, I also talked to Mrs Anna. I ensured that the situation is in
control by suggesting the nurse different ways to talk to Mrs Anna. From the event, it can be
interpreted that supervision and guidance is required to be provided to the staff by seniors. In my
opinion, it is necessary to interact with the nurses to identify the issues faced by them. It will be
useful to me in enabling me to develop effective communication skills in my subordinates.
Further, it will impact pharmacy practice by improving it through proper and timely
administration of medication.
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 2
This journal entry reflects on my involvement in a patient adherence intervention. We
were implementing the intervention associated with imparting appropriate knowledge to the
patients to improve their adherence. The intervention in which I was involved was
supplementing oral teaching with written materials. We prepared written teaching materials for
education older diabetic patients belonging disadvantaged background who failed to access
healthcare facilities regularly.
From the event, it can be interpreted that patients do not adhere to the medications and
instructions as sometimes they are not aware of consequences of non- compliance. Moreover,
they are also from backgrounds where careless attitude is adopted towards health. Therefore, I
feel that it is necessary to take additional steps to improve adherence of patients by implementing
various interventions.
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In my opinion, the patient adherence intervention of providing written material along
with oral teaching is effective at informing the diabetic patients about the benefits of medication.
It will also inform them in simple and effective ways, the diet and physical activity
considerations that they have to follow. This experience was enlightening as it provided
knowledge about the thought processes of patients and barriers that restrict them from adhering.
Therefore, on understanding the patient’s perspective, I will be able to improve my interaction
with them in future.
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 3
There was a conflict between the nurses while they were handling an emergency patient.
The case involved a 60 years old man who had met with an accident and required immediate
medical attention. As they were assessing the patient, one of the nurses talked in an autocratic
domineering tone to other who was managing to stop bleeding from the patient’s head. This
made the other nurse react with a disrespectful tone. Hence, there arose a situation of conflict. I
resolved the conflict by advising the first nurse to adopt a polite and assertive tone. Moreover, I
guided them on separate tasks that helped in treating the patient. In my opinion, pitch and tone of
voice hold an important place in communication and should be considered. This experience
helped me to realize the importance of tone and guided me towards adoption of suitable tone
according to the situation.
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 4
Bed sores present to be a serious concern for bed ridden patients in the hospital. In this
regard, repositioning is an effective intervention that can be implemented with the help of a
policy. The carers, nurses, doctors, patients as well as their family members are the parties that
need to be involved in this intervention. The intervention would require the carers to reposition
the bed ridden patients every 2 hours to prevent the occurrence of pressure sores. In my opinion,
this intervention is easy and simple to be carried out by the family members as well as hence it
would be effective in preventing pressure ulcers.
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY 5
I happened to come across a workplace issue related to burnout of nurses. One of the
graduate nurses at my workplace had just begun with her career as a nurse. Due to busy schedule
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and a number of patients to be cared, she was facing the issue of burnout. As she had just started
her career and did not have much experience, she could not balance her family and work life. I
interacted with her and suggested her some ways through which she could create a balance
between her personal and work life. In my opinion it is equally important to give time to work as
well as to personal life so as to be healthy. It would improve my practice in future as I would be
able to interact with patents better after being stress free.
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