Approach To Nursing Practice

Critical Reflection Essay

The following assignment will address a nursing related event reported in the media by virtue of a critical reflection. Proceedings of the article will be used to provide a sneak peek on the relevant issue in addition to referring to the following of the standards code of practice as promulgated by competent authorities for the sake of enhancing the nursing practice as well as minimizing the chances of occurrence of repetitive errors. In contemporary nursing, critical reflection has been identified as an indispensable tool and in this view Gibb’s Reflective Cycle will be utilized for attending to experiences, knowledge, actions, feelings and beliefs associated with the study to ensure provision of safe, quality nursing practice (Gustafsson & Fagerberg, 2004).

As per the report furnished through the media article it was stated that an old man died because of failure of the nursing home staff to properly acknowledge the state of the patient and subsequently take measures to treat his wounds. Further according to the statement rendered by the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner it has been mentioned that the elderly individual developed gangrene that further exacerbated his condition and lead to death ultimately due to incompetency of the healthcare staff at the nursing home to detect his condition properly. In consequence to this incident, a submission was lodged by the daughter in law of the dead patient to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s inquiry as a matter of elder abuse pleading so that higher standards of care in nursing homes may be maintained and enforced (ABC News, 2017). Reading about the incident in the media article has left me shocked and disturbed at the same time. I felt deeply moved and perplexed trying to conceive what lead to the fatal undesirable incident. I firmly believe that if the nursing home staff had been a little more careful and aware about the patient condition, the mishap would not have occurred. Referring to the nurse and the patient’s perspectives, it will be helpful to understand both the positive as well as negative aspects circumscribing the event. Firstly, despite the clear exhibition of the common symptoms, for pressure sores in the body of the old man, nurses were not in a position to comprehend the situation and act accordingly that accounted for negligence on their part causing unnecessary suffering of the patient. Prompt and timely intervention was severely lacking that threatened the patient’s condition and cost his life as an ill fate.  According to the propositions of standards of practice as set by NMBA, it falls under the duty of the registered nurse to carry out critical analysis in nursing for delivery safe and quality mode of treatment by means of person centered approach within a definite framework (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2017). Breach of this standard is clearly evident in the given context. Nevertheless, a positive aspect related to the case supported for notifying the authority about the vital symptoms of distress by one of the family member of the patient that resulted in shifting the patient to hospital service on an emergency basis. Further, taking lesson from the incident, the hospital authority resorted to making arrangements for training the nurses through introduction of novel approaches that aimed to hone the skills of the nursing professionals thereby ensuring optimum outcomes for the concerned patient.

Discussions of matter carried out in course of the assessment helped in expanding my understanding and knowledge pertaining to pressure wounds common in case of geriatric patients. I also gained relevant knowledge and skills that are pivotal to facilitate recovery through treatment interventions for patient affected by pressure sores. With progressive age, wound healing process also tends to slow down and is found to be dependent on couple of factors (Gould et al., 2015). Hence, I feel it is vital to follow the guidelines to tackle old patients without afflicting any harm to them. The complex interaction of the individual factors affects the wound healing process (Coleman et al., 2013).  Further, I perceived that accurate detection and proper assessment of the potential risk factors is indispensable to better fathom the issue of pressure ulcers in old individuals.

Apart from the regular assigned duties to the nurses, the registered nurses must resort to undertaking continuous actions for emancipating themselves through acquisition of prudent knowledge and skills related to their vocation. Efforts must be taken to engage in learning surpassing the territory of the formal course of education to offer optimum care facilities to the ailing patient. Evidence based practice possess the potential to insinuate positive changes and curb the differences in service delivery and cost incurred in healthcare (Melnyk et al., 2014). Standard and consistent infrastructure equipped with healthcare options is the basic requirement to fulfill the purpose. Therefore, I am eager to adopt the evidence based practice strategy to bring forth holistic and desirable outcomes for the patient. Thus, evidence based nursing is the solution.

Conceiving certain strategies to mitigate the problem that might have arose is not enough. Additionally measures must be taken so that the action plans are properly executed by the nursing professionals in order to offer suitable resolutions to the problems that might have threatened the patient condition. Ongoing as well pat researches have highlighted on matte related to prevention and management of pressure injuries. Role of ACQSHC is integral in this respect that proposed certain standards for combating the circumstances (Safetyandquality.gov.au, 2017). Effective functioning of governance components and specific system has been suggested as crucial to ameliorate the situation. Compliance to best practice apart from careful screening of the patient on presentation under the expert supervision has been recommended as suitable strategy to diminish the risks for patients afflicted by pressure ulcers. Moreover, it is considered essential to convey the risks associated in course of the prevention and management to both the patient and the caregiver to maintain transparency in treatment modality (Chou et al., 2013). I can assure to strictly abide by all the dictums and guidelines for the best interest of the healthcare service recipient.

The case study as represented in the media article clarified and restated the significance of engaging in continuous learning so that accurate measures through insight, prudence and pragmatic approaches may be incorporated by the nurses thereby rendering enough scope for broadening their knowledge base. Therefore, effectiveness of the evidence based practice to cater to the needs of the patient by adopting appropriate actions through abidance by the established guideline as laid down by the competent authorities is necessary to achieve the desirable outcomes. Conformance with both the codes of ethics and standards of practice is likely to exert beneficial results.   

References

ABC News. (2017). Man dies in hospital after nursing home staff fail to properly treat wounds. ABC News. Retrieved 5 August 2017, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-27/man-dies-after-nursing-home-staff-fail-to-properly-treat-wounds/7877820

Chou, R., Dana, T., Bougatsos, C., Blazina, I., Starmer, A. J., Reitel, K., & Buckley, D. (2013). Pressure ulcer risk assessment and prevention. Ann Intern Med, 159, 28-38.

Coleman, S., Gorecki, C., Nelson, E. A., Closs, S. J., Defloor, T., Halfens, R., ... & Nixon, J. (2013). Patient risk factors for pressure ulcer development: systematic review. International journal of nursing studies, 50(7), 974-1003.

Gould, L., Abadir, P., Brem, H., Carter, M., Conner?Kerr, T., Davidson, J., ... & Grice, E. (2015). Chronic wound repair and healing in older adults: current status and future research. Wound Repair and Regeneration, 23(1), 1-13.

Gustafsson, C., & Fagerberg, I. (2004). Reflection, the way to professional development?. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 13(3), 271-280.

Melnyk, B. M., Gallagher?Ford, L., Long, L. E., & Fineout?Overholt, E. (2014). The establishment of evidence?based practice competencies for practicing registered nurses and advanced practice nurses in real?world clinical settings: proficiencies to improve healthcare quality, reliability, patient outcomes, and costs. Worldviews on Evidence?Based Nursing, 11(1), 5-15.

Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. (2017). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Registered nurse standards for practice. Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. Retrieved 5 August 2017, from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx

Safetyandquality.gov.au. (2017). Preventing and Managing Pressure Injuries. www.safetyandquality.gov.au. Retrieved 5 August  2017, from https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/NSQHS-Standards-Fact-Sheet-Standard-8.pdf