Reflection on Action free essay sample

Reflection on action Introduction Reflection now a days is very important in health practises as it allows the practitioners to gain understandings from their professional and personal experiences . It has proven to be an essential utensil for development in their area. Reflection is seen as an influential resource of seeing accustomed events as fresh and inspiring. It is a way for critical thinking and learning. Thinkers have warned of the dangers of a life spent without reflection, but what creates reflective inquiry and why its necessary in our lives ? ( Nona Lyons, 2010). Reflection on action signifies the information one gathers through personal or professional experiences and converting them into knowledge to use it in their practical experiences, which enhance their skills. Likewise there is a part of us that is known to others and not to us which is an important aspect of reflection, where they give feedbacks of our practice and suggestions for improvement. Reflection discusses the urgency for skillful support, high quality mentoring and the necessity for good support networks. The reflective diary I have made is not alike other related works. I have done this essay on the model outlines by Gibbs (Gibbs model of reflection-1988). It is applied here in order to enable serious thoughts and relating the theories to my practices I had got. I have tried to discuss my reflection skills and recognize my capability to reveal what I have gained for personal and professional improvement. Understanding of facts frequently arises from practices. So it is essential to permit the experiences to occur first and reflect upon them. Description This essay is aiming to address an incident happened early in my professional life. In the first stage of Gibbs model of reflection the descriptions of events happens. It was the time when I was working as staff nurse in Cochin hospital in my home country, India. I was working in the ICU ,CCU and NICU at that time. Intensive Care Unit is a very intense area and can create a great deal of tension and stress for the patient and medical practitioners(Maureen Welker-2007). There I had observed the clinical skill of others and on a variety of occasions. As I am in a habit of watching what others did, I used to observe senior nurses on how they handled critical occasions? I was on duty with other two nurses in the unit when the incident happened. This happened in the case of a patient who had undergone a cardiac bypass surgery and was in the ventilator for three days, before getting shifted to the ICU,when he was found getting recovered. The work load was very high on that day that I felt like disappointed. I had not got an accountable practice during those days. . Nearly every one of the nurses would be willing to receive training in progressive cardiac life care( J R Coll Physicians Lond. 994, talks about Knowledge and attitude of nurses on medical wards to defibrillation). I may have felt that because of being new to the practice Appropriate training (and retraining) of nursing staff should improve the outcome of resuscitation efforts on medical wards. Appropriate training of nursing staff should improve the result of revival energies in medical wards. The day the patient was in the ICU ward he found to be little unconscious. And his speech was not clear during that time. It was observed that the patient had caught ICU psychosis. As there were other five patients in the ward, with not similar situations and deficiency of nurses ,it was not possible to give care to each and every patient individually all the time. He was connected with ECG led on his body to the monitor. He seemed to be violent in the abnormal situations often. My guide used to explain me the procedures step by step and informed me that I should be very cautious during the night time, as the number of staffs were less to attend the patients. The second stage of reflection is a discussion about the thoughts and feelings . I was feeling disappointed or nervous during the night shift on that day in hospital Procedure started as usual on that day too . It rather made me panic and depressed that I had to run around with other two senior staffs to all the patients. I could not concentrate on the work I was doing as some feelings were running in my mind. The patient I was talking about was in his silent stage during the night that we left him unnoticed. It was read in British journal of nursing that nurses need to be proactive in a critical care setting but this requires expert knowledge. Eventhough the expert knowledge was given to me frequently, I was not able to be that much cautious. It was during this time when the patient got up from his bed and started throwing the ECG led and pulling the cables of the monitors. If I hadn’t reached there in a few seconds, the whole unit would have been damaged. I initially got nailed by my mentor to a great extent that I felt like crying. The third stage of Gibbs model of reflection talks about the reflector being awareness of the event ,what is good or bad?. This incident has happened due to some negligence or some sort of problem with my attitude. I understood the situation and made up my mind, that I was able to understand the fault. A nurse not being cautious inn the critical ward can be dangerous that one may lose his life . The helpful side of this event was that, after swotting the condition I became conscious of my responsibilities and was able to be truthful with the help of my mentor and others. The fourth stage of Gibbs model of reflection talks about analysis. He encourages the reflector to make logic of the situation. With the event happened ,and after evaluation of what had happened, I converted my confidence to be positive to do the duties in ICU and other wards , and cultured to see how to work self-reliantly. I accomplished to switch my moods and work determinedly in emergency circumstances, which in turn matured my profession. The shoddier side of the event was that if I could not manage things accurately I may have harmed the life of the patient and others who were admitted there in the ICU . It might have been a bad mark in my career and could have even spoiled that. Through the evaluation of the event, I became more aware of the different practises and responsibilities concerning the work in different wards. Rather I developed my own skills through that experience. I understood why my mentor asked me to be always cautious while I work in intensive and critical care units. I have learned here from experience and through experience(Barnard – 2002). Conclusion This is the fifth stage if Gibbs model of reflection. In this stage as I have travelled around the issue from diverse approaches. I believe, I have got enough evidence to base my judgement. I think the method of reflection makes a real difference to practise than any other means for self-improvement for the prosperity of ones profession. Encircling the issues and factors mentioned above it brought me to the conclusion based on my experience that the attitude and determination of the caregivers in hospital must not be mixed with their other issues that they got interrupted. Or in the simple sense the attitude of the nurses in care wards should not be a adverse effect on the care given to patients. The best available care should be given to the patients by Nurses and other medical practitioners(Ann et al 1964). A study of relationship between the knowledge of the usefulness of the nursing care plan and the attitude of nurses toward the plan/care planning process(Marcia McCarthy-1991),is very much important in the present scenario. Action plan Inside my action plan, I designed working more assuredly and teaching my juniors or giving valuable advice to them. I planned to do more studies in patient care on augmenting good attitudes. Managing critical situations more efficiently even with the scarcity of partners. To learn from good superiors about the nursing practice techniques and to deliver that in a professional way. By using the Gibbs (1988) model of reflection, it made me realise that my learning is something which I must be active in. Previous experiences are tomorrow’s guidelines. I definitely consider reflection as one of the important learning tool my current and future practice and for the whole medical professional fields.