Nursing Reflection as a Student Nurse

The following essay is a reflective account on an event that I, a student nurse encountered whilst on my second clinical placement in my first year of study. The event took place in a Fountain Nursing Home in Granite City. I have chosen to give thought to the event described in this essay as I feel that it highlights the need for nurses to have effective communication skills especially when treating patients that are suffering with a mental illness. Upon arriving to the Nursing home for the second time on Thursday November 14,2013; assigned the same patient as before. On meeting my patient the first thing I noticed myself doing without even thinking about it was giving her a visual inspection. Before nursing school I never really looked at someone at face value and inspected him or her physically. While interacting with my patient I felt as if I was taking to my grandmother, it was very comfortable and easy. Her neurological assessment was good, she had eye contact with me, was able to follow some simple commands such as showing me her hands and squeezing my fingers. Being in the nursing home-made me feel like there was so much medical information to acquire, I viewed it as my own personal practice space for my nursing skills. When taking with my patient she reflected on her life a bit and her stories made me get emotional. The Patient, admitted to the nursing home as a permanent resident after the death of her husband.

While with my patient on the first visit we had set some goals. The goals were for her to walk more with the aid of her walker and for her to recall past events. From the first visit these I identified these issues as problems for the patient. I gave the patient the following nursing diagnoses. Impaired walking R/...

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...th the patient I kept thinking that if this were my mother how would I want the nurse to treat her. I tried to behave in the way I would expect a nurse to treat me. I had preconceived notions before meeting the patient and they were all laid to rest almost immediately, honestly I was nervous. But once I started it began to feel comfortable and the interview just flowed naturally.

This experience differed from the medical experience I had before, as now I was not just observing but also actually interacting with the patient. My previous experience working in a rehabilitation center made me more ready for what to expect when interacting with elderly patients. I believe that I handled the experience very well; there is nothing I think I would do differently. With more exposure to this type of situation I am sure that I will become more adept in my skills and techniques.