Reflective Essay

Questions: Write a reflective essay on an experience, from your clinical practice, in caring for an older person with impaired cognitive function. You are to use the Gibbs (1988) model for reflection to address the following criteria: 1. Address each of the following sections: i. Provide a succinct description of the situation, and in the context of nursing ii. Identify and briefly discuss your thoughts and feelings iii. Discuss what was positive and not so positive for you in the situation iv. Present a succinct analysis of the situation the deeper meaning or learning about yourself (values, ideals, beliefs about the situation) v. Discuss what could have done differently vi. Identify actions you need to take to improve your performance. 2. Present your work in essay format, including an appropriate introduction and conclusion, correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. 3. Support your writing with current literature with no fewer than 10 references, using APA6th referencing format. Answers: Introduction The primary aim of this essay is to demonstrate an ability to critically reflect on a clinical experience of caring for an older person with an impaired cognitive function for the purpose of evaluating personal performance and improving practice. And the chosen topic for this essay is the depression of older people. The main reason behind choosing this topic is that in present scenario depression among aging population is a common problem and it is increasing at an alarming rate. The different unavoidable situation, which people experience in their later life such as retirement, problems related to medical, death of loved ones and increased isolation among the older people may result in depression. There are many elderly people who are victims of depression because they are thrown out of their own house by their own children. And depression prevents an individual from enjoying life like he/she did before. It also affects the sleep, appetite, energy physical and mental health of the person, so it is important to highlight this topic. Discussion According to Dube and Ducharme, 2014 reflective self-review of a situation, experience or performance allows the individual with wider learning experiences and provides a vision to improve their professional practice. Many individuals are of the view that the best way of learning is to learn from their personal experiences. The Gibbs reflective cycle helps the nurses to communicate their problems and feelings, which is not possible with the help of traditional learning that is provided by the textbooks (Bulman et al, 2013). However, if an individual is not reflecting on their experiences and if they do not think seriously as to how to improve themselves, then it becomes very tough for them to learn anything at all. So, to deal with this situation in 1988 Professor Graham Gibbs highlighted his Reflective Cycle in his book Learning by Doing. Gibbs reflective cycle helps individuals to learn from their daily experiences and also help them to understand what they have done better and how they can improve themselves further("Gibbs' Reflective Cycle: Helping People Learn From Experience", 2016). This assignment uses Gibbs Reflective Cycle to highlight the experience of attending older people suffering from depression in clinical practice. Gibbs Reflective Cycle Gibbs Reflective Cycle helps an individual to learn from its daily experiences, by providing a wider environment and help them in analyzing where they are doing good and where they need to improve. Figure 1: Gibbs Reflective Cycle The above figure highlights the different stages involved in the Gibbs Reflective Cycle. Stage1: Description I am currently on a nursing practice in a clinic in Singapore and I attend older persons with impaired cognitive functions in the clinic. As I am on my very initial stage, so my duty is to help the doctors and just started attending few older persons with impaired cognitive functions. The incident occurred in a morning practice class when an old person entered the clinic and he was suffering from depression. It was my first practical class, where I was supposed to attend the person whoever comes to the clinic. I was very nervous as it was my first practical class. And the doctor, who is my supervisor was standing beside me. So when I started with my question I was so nervous that I could not articulate my first sentence and I was literally shaking, the patient was corporative and he could identify that it was my first time, but my supervisor was unsympathetic and responded by taking over the secession whilst I stood in a corner of the room and felt like crying. As soon as the session ended I left the clinic and did not speak to anyone. Stage 2: Feelings I felt terrible and for a moment, I felt like leaving my nursing classes. I was so upset and embarrassed with my inability to communicate with the patient and was extremely angry with my supervisor for his response in front of everyone present inside the clinic. I felt that my supervisor has not given me enough time to compose myself. I was so disturbed by the situation that I took leave for four days and reflecting the situation I felt the need to talk with the placement coordinator. And later on, I realized that it is a natural phenomenon to feel nervous when we speak publically for the first time, after realizing this fact I felt little better and less embarrassed. Stage 3: Evaluation Eventually, I did not felt that the problem has been solved completely. That day a soon as the patient left, I also left the clinic without interacting with anyone present in the clinic. I did not even speak to my supervisor. But later on speaking to my fellow trainee, about his experience and feelings, found out that everyone feels nervous during their first class. and after realizing this I felt much better. Stage 4: Analysis Later on, I realized that both my own actions and the reaction of the supervisor made the situation worst. I realized that instead of leaving the clinic immediately, I should have spoken to my supervisor about the situation and how I felt. Many scholars believed that dealing with the situation immediately is preferable. But instead of talking to the supervisor I directly spoke to the higher authority. According to Daines and Farris, 2003 not dealing with the situation immediately and taking it to the higher authority may worsen the situation. The senior doctor may feel offended, and may lead to future problems. The reaction of the supervisor also worsens the situation, he has not given me enough time to me to compose myself and get over my nervousness. But the doctor claimed that he was trying to help me by taking over the questioning session but I did not feel the same. But later on when I met the doctor in a meeting with the placement coordinator, he argued that I should have spoke n to him instead of leaving the clinic immediately ("Gibbs' Reflective Cycle: Helping People Learn From Experience", 2016). Stage 5: Conclusion In retrospect, there are several things that I should have done differently. Instead of leaving I should have spoken to the supervisor about my feelings and should have convinced the doctor that I can carry on with the situation. However, I have realized the importance of building up a relationship with the mentor. Now I feel that I have been successful in building up a relationship with the mentor in the preceding days, and I was also able to explain how nervous I was during my first session. This situation has given me the opportunity to highlight how to deal with the nerves during such situation and has also made me realized that the entire situation could have been avoided completely. Stage 6: Future actions In the coming future, I will make sure that I will build up a strong relationship with my co-trainees. And will communicate with the supervisor about every problem related to the training session. During the entire training period, I will come across several supervisors, so I will make sure that I will communicate with every supervisor about my problem and try finding out the solution. In fact, I already had a great conversation with a supervisor and together with the teacher we already started a program to overcome the problem of nerves. And I planned to do the same with rest of the supervisor, as it will help them to understand how I feel. I have also realized that I should interact with my co-trainees more often so that I can understand how they feel and how they are overcoming the problem of nervousness. By interacting with my fellow trainees will help me in learning different things. I have books on nursing training and have decided to go through them after the practical session , as this will help me gain knowledge practically. This experienced has made me understand that it is very important to be confident during the practical session and during the time of presenting ones skills. One need to be very confident while presenting their skills in front of many people("Gibbs' Reflective Cycle: Helping People Learn From Experience", 2016). References Bulman, C., Schutz, S. (Eds.). (2013). Reflective practice in nursing. John Wiley Sons. Gibbs' Reflective Cycle: Helping People Learn From Experience. (2016). Howatson-Jones, L. (2013). Reflective Practice in Nursing: SAGE Publications. Learning Matters. Huseb, S. 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