Reflection on Nurses
My reflective report will be about bed bathing. The format of the report is based on Gibbs’ (1988) guidelines to reflective writing. The service user will be identified as ‘Mr Jones’, so as to maintain patient confidentiality in keeping with the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Code of Conduct NMC (2008), and the Data Protection Act of 1998. Reflective writing is a fundamental part of growing into a more confident healthcare practitioner; it highlights areas of strengths and weaknesses so that skills and can be reviewed and developed accordingly.
Mr Jones was admitted to hospital after having a stroke. He was bed bound and unable to communicate effectively, but he could still move his arms and was very strong. I was responsible for giving Mr Jones a bed bath along with another experienced colleague. I gathered together the necessary items to carry out Mr Jones‘ bed bath, and ensured that there were not any obstacles around the bed so that my colleague and I could work effectively.
Treating people with care, respecting their individuality and their dignity is a fundamental part of our conduct as nurses (The Code 2008), therefore we introduced ourselves to Mr Jones and explained what we were going to do even though he did not seem to understand. As I closed the curtains around the bed, his behaviour began to change. He started using very harsh expletives and began to grind his teeth. He then clenched his fists and attempted to hit both us and despite this, my colleague and I had to persevere with the task and removed his gown, which was very difficult because he kept tightening his arms and fists. When we eventually succeeded, we began by washing Mr Jones in a logical order; firstly his face, then arms, his upper and lower body and lastly his back, sacrum and the back of his legs. We turned him on his side so that we could remove the soiled sheet from beneath him and replace it with a fresh one. Throughout the whole process, Mr Jones was clenching his
Mr Jones was admitted to hospital after having a stroke. He was bed bound and unable to communicate effectively, but he could still move his arms and was very strong. I was responsible for giving Mr Jones a bed bath along with another experienced colleague. I gathered together the necessary items to carry out Mr Jones‘ bed bath, and ensured that there were not any obstacles around the bed so that my colleague and I could work effectively.
Treating people with care, respecting their individuality and their dignity is a fundamental part of our conduct as nurses (The Code 2008), therefore we introduced ourselves to Mr Jones and explained what we were going to do even though he did not seem to understand. As I closed the curtains around the bed, his behaviour began to change. He started using very harsh expletives and began to grind his teeth. He then clenched his fists and attempted to hit both us and despite this, my colleague and I had to persevere with the task and removed his gown, which was very difficult because he kept tightening his arms and fists. When we eventually succeeded, we began by washing Mr Jones in a logical order; firstly his face, then arms, his upper and lower body and lastly his back, sacrum and the back of his legs. We turned him on his side so that we could remove the soiled sheet from beneath him and replace it with a fresh one. Throughout the whole process, Mr Jones was clenching his
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