Nursing Reflective Essay

I was assigned in gastrointestinal surgery ward. During this placement, I have gained sufficient knowledge and skills that helped me developed my professional learning experience. Using Gibbs reflective cycle, it enabled me to reflect on my clinical experience. It made me aware of the things that I could do better in the future. My patient requires highly complex surgery and postoperative wound care; he has bellovac drains and nasogastric tube (NGT). My buddy nurse told me to remove his NGT and bellovac drain. At first, I was very hesitant about the procedure since it was my first time to remove an NGT and bellovac drain. While I was preparing my equipment, I was also preparing myself and building some confidence. Then, I asked permission from

However, my tiny confidence helped me to focus and execute the task accordingly. After that, it felt great because I was able to do the task flawlessly. Then, it made me realise that subjecting myself to every nursing skills increases my self-confidence. This will be my foundation that will help me to adapt in new situations.

The positive aspect of this experience helped me built my confidence in performing nursing tasks. After that, I was able to perform various kinds of nursing procedures. It was indeed a great experience to increase my nursing skills. According to Chesser-Smyth (2013) every opportunity is a learning opportunity and it is preparing me to become a better nurse someday.

There was not much negative aspect that I can talk about from this experience. My buddy nurse was very supportive and she was always guiding me on practicing skills that were within my scope of nursing. However, the only negative aspect that I can say about was my time management. I am a bit slow when performing a procedure because it was new for me. Nelson (2010) mentioned that time management skills can be overwhelming for novice nurses however, this will improve overtime after several