Reflective Account On Nursing Practice

Some of my strengths in this domain would be staying inside my boundaries as a student nurse and analyzing my own nursing practice. On one of my practice days I had a patient who needed gravel prn as she was experiencing nausea and vomiting. I read on her MAR that she could have in IV. Since she was already throwing up and was visibly upset I asked her if she would like this route because it would be faster acting and I didn’t want her throwing up the oral tablet. She agreed and I found her primary care provider to assist in this. At first she just said yes, go ahead but then I had to explain to her that it wasn’t yet in my scope to administer IV direct medication. Once she understood this I observed her administer the gravol, asking her questions about what she was doing.
A skill that I struggled with last semester was my self-care and it began to impact my nursing practice.
This semester I had made it a goal of mine to stay on top of my exercise regime and ensuring that I was getting a good amount of sleep in preparation for my shift. I have noticed a huge difference in my mood and it has made it easier to meet the level of care I want to provide for my clients. It’s important to stay on top of this in order to maintain your own fitness to practice. I also make sure that throughout my shift, the primary care provide of my client as well as my instructor are informed on where I’m at in their care and the status of my client. I also feel that I am good at recognizing where I need improvements and acknowledging stuff that I am unsure about (such as the chest pain). I understand that that this is all a part of growing as a student nurse and will benefit me in the
future.

Although I feel that I am improving in this area, I think I still need to work on examining orders, decisions or actions affecting the client and quality of care. I would like to start adding to my clients care plans, and really examine their health history, lab results and so on. Sometime I feel like I skim the surface of this due to a lack of time to sit down and really ask questions and research what certain results and things mean. In future clinical experiences I would like to address this by trying to find time in my shift to sit down and research what different aspects of their chart mean. Asking my instructor and other nurses about things I am unsure about will help bring my knowledge to the next level. I could also take these results home (ensuring there are no patient identifiers) and do some research between clinical days.