Gibbs Model Of Reflection: Theoretical Knowledge Into Practice

This reflection will aim to analyse the learning plan (see appendix 1) particularly addressing the objective; gaining confidence in managing a group of patients and delegating to team members whiles on placement. I will demonstrate a critical analysis of the importance of leadership and management of teams and my ability to be responsive and innovative in unpredictable situations. This reflection will also address how self-appraisal and feedback have enhanced my personal and professional development, explaining how I have applied theoretical knowledge into practice. Gibbs’ model of reflection (see appendix 2) will be applied to provide an easily accessible and straightforward list of questions that help structure the evaluation of my experience
I have excluded names and places in this piece of reflection in correspondence to the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code (NMC, 2015) standards on confidentiality.
In the first stage of Gibbs’ reflective model, it talks about giving a pertinent and succinct description of your experience. At the moment, am having a placement experience in an accident and emergency department (A&E) and during one of my experiences, I was delegated by my mentor to manage one of the bays in a particular unit of the A&E department called the Clinical Decision Unit (CDU). This bay had 3 patients. I was required to care for the patients who were suffering from various health conditions ranging from minor ailments and injuries, to acute and long term diseases as well as delegate to other team members. One of the patients I was looking after was to 24-year-old lady due to be discharged home that day; the other was a 60-year-old woman due to be moved to a medical ward for further treatment for acute exacerbation of asthma; and the third an 85-year old woman to be moved to an orthopaedic ward following a left fractured neck of femur (NOF). After
All throughout my experience, I had minimal supervision from my mentor. She supervised me with the dispensing and administration of oral drugs excluding (controlled drugs). This was quite beneficial for my learning as I tended to independently care for patients and raise concerns when necessary. It also gave me a sense of empowerment and trust. This experience contributed to developing my delegation as well as supervision skills. Hasson et al. (2013) mention in their research paper that dynamic models of modern health care pose a need for registered nurses to have competencies in delegating and supervising healthcare assistants. However, sometimes delegated task could be above the delegate’s level of competence, skills or experience (Heath, 2016). On the other hand, my mentor could have been more attentive and on the lookout of the task she assigned me to although the various tasks were completed and my patients were safely taken care of. This was unmasked by the evidence that I safely with supervision handed the care of the patients to be transferred to respective wards and safely discharged the 24-year-old. With the application of theoretical knowledge acquired from modules such as Adult Nursing Skills Underpinning Complex Care, EBP such as up to date asthma care pathways and risk and falls assessment tools were implemented to ensure a safe and best practice of patient