The episode of care is taken from the Record of Practice Assessment document under ’personal/professional strengths and limitations- use all care experiences and opportunities to further develop personal/professional strengths and reduce existing limitations (university of Hertfordshire (UH) 2010).
Reflection is a process which the nurse can use to think about and achieve better knowledge of her practice, and is one of the key components of continuing professional development (Jasper 2003).
The student was on placement in a busy accident and emergency department (A&E) and felt apprehensive as she had never participated in real resuscitation situation or performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a real patient. The student had only ever practised CPR on a dummy during her mandatory training and was worried about performing in front of an experienced team due to her limited experience in case of failure.
In preparation for the placement the student had researched the trust resuscitation procedure.
1 Research Is a systematic method of exploring or establishing the existence of a phenomenon and how it influences other phenomenon’s (pollit & Beck 2004).
Nursing research is an umbrella term for all research into nursing practice and issues related to it (parahoo 1997).
During her first interview with her mentor the student explained how she perceived her personal and professional limitations. It is crucial that students ensure they make the best opportunities out of their practice placements (Royal College of Nursing 2002). The mentor is required to discuss placement learning opportunities and identify