Reflective essay of personal and professional development
ANSWER
This assignment is a critical analysis and reflection on my practice’s continuing personal and professional development (CPPD). This account will identify practical needs that I must address through supportive evidence-based research, as well as assess the impact of these needs on my personal development as a future qualified nurse. When working with a staff nurse during admission, my learning need was assertiveness in communication. Gibbs (1988) framework model of reflection will be used to meet the need and demonstrate the ability to engage in advancing my care. To protect the patient’s anonymity, a pseudonym Tommy will be used, as recommended by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2008). In addition, I plan to follow the post-registration education and practice (PREP) guidelines (NMC 2011) to keep my knowledge and skills up to date while also empowering lifelong learning in my nursing career. (NMC 2012)
My communication skills have improved in all contacts, and this has been recognized in every practice. However, I became aware of this learning need when I recognized my lack of assertiveness in communication while working with a staff nurse on a difficult patient during admission. During my hospital placement in November of 2014, I participated in this learning activity. During the second week of placement, I identified this need because I was able to perform patient admissions under the supervision of my mentor. My mentor’s feedback established the need to improve this skill, and I agreed that it needed to be developed in order to help avoid errors in future practice, improve my decision-making skills, and increase my professional satisfaction. I spent a significant amount of time researching and critically analyzing this learning requirement. However, as Webb (2011) identified, this could be an ongoing process of improvement, supported by the Department of Health’s (2013) ongoing process of improvement in the NHS to be more efficient and less bureaucratic. I felt it was important to work on this again because it affected both the patient and me as a future qualified nurse (Fowler, 2008).
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Tommy is 50 years old, has right leg cellulitis, and lives alone with his cat. Due to the impression that the situation was out of my comfort zone, I found it difficult to present myself as a self-assured, assertive, and empathetic student nurse during my first meeting with Tommy. I noticed that this gentleman was struggling from the start of the visit, but I didn’t want to make a direct statement for fear of coming across as patronizing or a dominant student nurse. On the plus side, I chose to improve this learning need so that I would be prepared in future placements with the knowledge and set of skills I would need to manage complex patient care (Fowler, 2008).
Having encountered patients who have refused requests from other student nurses and staff nurses alike by expressing dislikes, disagreements, and even anger when offered treatment, I have observed that patients sense how the student nurses present themselves and may base their decision on the student nurses’ abilities to communicate assertively (Fowler, 2008). This also made me consider my self-awareness and empathetic abilities. As I listened to Tommy’s emotional concerns, he revealed that he was terrified of not having anyone in his house to feed his cat while he was in the hospital because he didn’t have any close relatives. I responded calmly and confidently, stating unequivocally that my intention was to obtain his permission to allow health professionals to provide long-term care to him (Fischhoff et al, 2011).
Our primary role as student nurses is to interact with patients, and several studies have found that student nurses lack assertive skills, as evidenced by Bekkum and Hilton (2013) and McCabe and Timmins (2005) qualitative study in two schools (n=30). It was noted that the majority of student nurses were assertive but chose not to demonstrate this skill in order to maintain positive interpersonal relationships and avoid conflict. Almost (2006), on the other hand, deemed it important to measure nursing students’ level of assertiveness prior to, and near the end of, their pre-registration program, and to offer help throughout their program to develop their assertiveness. Almost as important, conflicts arose as a result of the multi-professional roles that student nurses play, as well as the fact that the basic nursing functions of caring and controlling can cause tension.
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