nursing relection

This essay will reflect on my personal and professional development during my first year on the nursing diploma programme. I will do this by discussing my experience with the five essential skills clusters which include care, compassion and communication, medicine management and nutrition and fluid management. I will relate the five skills by showing an understanding of a recognised model of reflection. Reflection, is a way of analysing past incidents to promote learning and improve safety, in the delivery of health care in practice. For the purposes of this essay I have chosen the Gibbs reflective cycle model (Gibbs, 1988, cited in O’Caroll & Park, 2007, p86), will be followed, as it gives an opportunity to produce a structured account of the discussion. Gibbs (1988) consists of six stages to complete one cycle which is able to improve my nursing practice continuously and learning from the experience for better practice in the future. The cycle starts with a description of the situation, next is to analysis of the feelings, third is an evaluation of the experience, fourth stage is an analysis to make sense of the experience, fifth stage is a conclusion of what else could I have done and final stage is an action plan to prepare if the situation arose again. In order to respect the patient’s and staff member’s confidentiality (Nursing Midwifery Council, (NMC), the code of standards of conduct, performance, and ethics for nurses and midwives, 2008), the precise location of this placement will not be named. Consent (NMC, 2008) has been obtained from patients mentioned within this essay, although in the interest of maintaining confidentiality (NMC, 2008) of the patients, therefore pseudonyms will be used.

Both of the placement areas I was allocated were general children’s wards which both included a day unit and inpatient beds for surgical and paediatric patients. A children’s ward provides health care for children aged from birth to seventeen. The role of any nurse