Mental Health Clinical Reflection

Clinical Reflection Paper
My experience in mental health clinical was very different from any other clinical I had before. In a mental health clinical setting, I am not only treating client’s mental illnesses, I am also treating their medical problems such as COPD, diabetes, chronic renal failure, etc. Therefore, it is important to prepare for the unexpected events. In this mental health clinical, I learned that the importance of checking on my clients and making sure that they are doing fine by performing a quick head-to toes assessment at the beginning of my shift. I had also learned that client’s mental health illness had a huge impact on their current medical illness.
Before my shift started, I did my research about my new client for week three clinical. I thought I was well prepared for the clinical, I knew the client’s mental and medical conditions but I was more focused on the client’s mental health issues and not the medical illnesses. When the nurse informed me that client W was experiencing shortness of breath due to his COPD, I was a bit shock because I was not expecting that to happen.
Brief Introduction To The Clinical Situation
On my first day of week three clinical at 0830, client W and I were on our way to the dinning room and client B asked me to put his jacket on, so I told client W that I would meet him in the dinning room. After I helped Client B, I was on my way to the dinning room and nurse A told me that client W was experiencing difficulty breathing and we needed to give him his 0900 inhalers earlier. He was having audible wheezing and rapid respiratory rate. Therefore, we had to give client W his inhalers, SalbutaMOL Sulfate, which is a bronchodilator to allow the alveoli in the lung to open so th...

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...actually needs help. However, I have to respect his decision, in order to provide client-centred care. “Respect for life means that human life is precious and needs to be respected, protected and treated with consideration” (College of Nurses of Ontario, 2009c, p. 8). Sometimes offering medication may not necessary be the first and best solution for the situation. We as a registered nurse, have the responsibility to offer the client health teaching such as pain control instead of giving him medication right away. This prevents the client developing a certain medication addiction and helps to establish a therapeutic nurse-client relationship by providing supports and cares without the use of medication. Therefore, this experience from mental health clinical practicum had helped me to improve nursing practice of delivering high quality health care to my clients.