Reflective Log 1

Nishtar College of Nursing

Nishtar Medical University Multan

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Year II

Nursing Education Elective

Reflective Log

Submitted to: Madam Saima

Submitted by: Yasmin Tahira

Date: 30.08.2023
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Gibb’s Reflective Cycle: Analysis Essay

Description

I am referring to the incident that occurred as I was placed in the rehabilitation ward. There was an
elderly female patient, and I was requested to assist her in taking a bath. I will refer to the patient as Mrs.
A to maintain confidentiality. When I proceeded to give care to the patient, she was already sited in a
wheelchair. I first introduced myself to the patient and asked her questions, such as if she could bathe
herself to assess if she could do it herself. She said yes, but she needed me there in case she needed any
help. I helped her stand in the wheelchair and helped her undress. She requested I allow her to proceed
with the showering process. For the first minute, she was doing well, and then I heard a falling thud. I
dashed in and saw the patient lying on the floor unconscious. I quickly pressed the emergency button, and
the emergency team arrived in a few minutes to assist me with the patient.

Feelings

Reflecting on the incident, I felt that I did not act in the best interest as I was supposed. I am supposed to
be answerable for my actions in cases of decision-making, giving advice and directives for my practice. I
felt that I would have controlled the occurrence of the situation by performing extra patient assessments
on their state of health to avoid the fall occurrence.

Evaluation

The doctors and the nurses commended me for taking responsibility for pressing the emergency button
that allowed the team to come to the assistance of attending to the patient reasonably, avoiding major
injuries and complications to the patient. Unfortunately, the patient suffered from small bruises on her
hand and head, but there was no fractured bone injury. Areas of improvement are that I should have done
an intensive assessment of the patient’s situation before accepting her request to shower herself.

Analysis

Based on my analysis, the occurrence of the event would have been prevented if the proper evaluation
and assessment of the patient’s condition. Proper communication between the patient and the nurses is
essential to identify areas of challenge. The occurrence was a mind-opening encounter to me that nurses
should be more task-oriented rather than patient-centered (Liu et al., 2022). The welfare and safety of the
patients are supposed to be an area of great concern during caregiving. Patient falls common challenges
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experienced n health and care institutions. The major causes of such accidents are medical conditions,
dizziness, and physical conditions such as amputation (Rashid, 2019). Whatever the case, the patient
should be prevented by performing appropriate assessments and interventions.

Conclusion

Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle is essential in providing assessments and evaluations for a patient. The process
entails six stages of exploring an experience, including; description, feelings, evaluation, analysis,
conclusion, and action plan (Li et al., 2020). This reflection is essential to me as it relates to the
challenges that can occur if proper measures are not taken during patient care. The patient’s fall would
have been prevented, and in this case, the event made me more self-conscious of my necessary
interventions when dealing with patients in the course of my career practice.

Action Plan

I will ensure I perform a full and proper patient assessment in the future. I will check their mobility status
before allowing them to perform standing or walking activities. I will provide my patients with
instructions or equipment to help them prevent falls. If the patient is not safe showering on their own, yet
they feel they can, I will communicate with them effectively concerning the situation and make them
know them know that their safety is my greatest issue of concern (Meekes et al., 2022). I will also
reassure my patient that they will resume showering as soon as they become more stable and not in a
position to experience fall incidents.

References

Choi, K. S. (2019). Virtual reality wound care training for clinical nursing education: An initial user
study. In 2019 IEEE Conference on virtual reality and 3D user Interfaces (VR) (pp. 882-883). IEEE.
Web.

Li, Y., Chen, W., Liu, C., & Deng, M. (2020). Nurses’ psychological feelings about the application of
Gibbs’s reflective cycle of adverse events. American Journal of Nursing, 9(2), 74-78.

Liu, W. Y., Tung, T. H., Zhang, C., & Shi, L. (2022). Systematic review for the prevention and
management of falls and fear of falling in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Brain and Behavior, e2690.
Web.
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Meekes, W. M., Leemrijse, C. J., Korevaar, J. C., & Stanmore, E. K. (2022). Implementing Falls
Prevention in Primary Care: Barriers and Facilitators. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 17, 885. Web.

Rashid, A. (2019). Yonder: Difficult patients, fall prevention, hormonal contraception, and laughter
therapy. The British Journal of General Practice, 69(682), 245. Web.