Nursing Team Meeting Reflection

While working on the Acute Medicine floor at Victoria Hospital, I have had many patient encounters that have allowed provided me with the opportunity to reflect upon many aspects, including the care I was providing. One particular encounter upon which I found myself critically reflecting upon involved trying to move an elderly female patient from her bed to her chair. This was quite difficult as she had the diagnosis of failure to thrive related to reduced strength in her lower body. For confidentiality reasons, this patient will be referred to as Rosemary for the remainder of this reflection. Rosemary was admitted to the unit a few days before I had the chance to care for her. Upon our initial meeting, I noticed that she was quite dependent

I ensured to communicate with her about how she was feeling as well as provide her with encouragement and applauded her effort, which I believe contributed to her perseverance with continuing to push towards trying to get up and move. Studies in the past have also highlighted encouragement to be an important part of a patient care. Mayer (2014) purposed that providing patients with information regarding their state of health is not enough if healthcare professional are to implement high-quality care. She discovered that if we are to improve the health of our patient’s, we must employ patient-centred as well as joint communication with the patient, and ensure that we focus on the patient’s ability to manage his or her own health (Mayer, 2014). This will allow for healthcare professionals to encourage their patients to engage in personal care and thereby permit them to better address their personal health issues (Mayer, 2014). Moreover, when reflecting during this situation, I discovered that although my co-caring nurse and I were not able to get Rosemary up to her chair, I believe that this encouragement truly helped her remain positive throughout a process that may have been difficult to experience not only physically, but