Critical Thinking: Gibbs Reflective Cycle and Allows one to Reflect on Kats Case Study- Reflective Writing Assessment Answers

Task: Professional practice scenario - Reflection

Assessment Type Written Assignment Purpose This assessment provides you with the opportunity to practice and develop your critical thinking and reflection skills Description This assessment task requires you to submit a written piece of work that follows the assessment guidelines.

Introduction

The report below is based on Gibbs Reflective cycle and allows one to reflect on Kats case study and the learning’s derived from it.

Feelings

After listening to the story I feel that the hospital staffs especially the one who were taking the blood should have shown empathy towards Kate since she is scared of needles. By applying the numbing cream to Kat she could have eased her pain since Kat is not used to needles especially in the absence of her parents. The reason behind this feeling was because Kate is used to her parents being around due to which her pain would ease her pain

Evaluations

The good things about the story is that it teaches the way family are supportive about Kate hence would assist at the hospital every day and made it simple for her to work with her pain. Also there may be situations in life which may not be very comfortable but we need to deal with it. Also in case of a situation where a patient is feeling uncomfortable like Kat it is the duty of the nurse to ensure that the patient feels that she is in a safe environment.

Conclusions

The Gibbs cycle is a theoretical model used by students to write reflection in their assignments. In the conclusion aspect of the cycle it allows the writer to come up with alternative plans in the same situation (Gibbs, 1988)

From the perspective of the nurse, the person who is administrating the blood test could be more empathetic towards Kat and she could have put the numbing cream instead of arguing with Kat who was scared. If the option of numbing cream was not available she could explain it to Kat in a gentle manner and made her feel safe instead of increasing her fear of using needles. The other option could have been was that the nurse could have first calmed down Kate and called it an angel cream and let her fear subside and continue with the story in the meantime applying the cream.

Also all measures should have been taken to ensure that Kat did not have to call her parents since the patient and the parents would be stressed with such as situation which would make things worse for patients, the parents and the hospital. At the same time the nurse could have gotten another person to take Kats blood with which she would be comfortable, at the same time feel that she was looked out for.

Action Plan

According to Olson (1995), the outcome of a patients is correlated to the empathy shown by nurses and it is confirmed by Maata (2006).One of the main learning points from the story was that the first duty of a nurse is to ensure that the patient does not panic and feels safe in the hands of the hospital. Also along with the skills set of the nurse, it is essential that they treat patients with care and empathy and create an atmosphere of comfort

If I was the nurse at the hospital, I would have first ensured that Kate would have felt safe in that environment by calming her down. Once she would calm down I would explain to her that taken her blood was essential and given her 5 minutes to feel better. Once she felt a bit calmer I would apply the angel cream or the pain numbing cream as we call it ensuring that Kat was okay at the same time.

If Kat would still like to talk to her parents and if she is still upset I would further convince her and asked her told her that the numbing cream would be applied and tried to convince her to not speak to the parents since both Kat and the parents would have been further traumatized due to which they would not be able to leave Kat at the hospital again.

The above is based on the literature written by Charon (2001) which states that the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on and plights of others makes a proficient nurse which is supported by Brunero , Lamont and Coates (2010) who says that a patients wellbeing is associated with the nurses empathy towards them

Inference

The above reflective exercise is very useful in understanding the various strengths and weakness associated with a person and uses it in their future life.