Reflecting on Interprofessional Working and Service User Involvement: A Journey of Personal Growth and Continuous Learning
SAFE AND EFFECTIVE CARE REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Short Essay Example
The essay will utilise Gibb's (2007) reflective tool to reflectively analyse my experiences of interprofessional working and service user involvement in clinical practice. Sian Nicol and Dosser (2016) define reflective practice as an individual's ability to scrutinise his/her own actions and engage in the process of self-growth and continuous learning. According to Koshy et al. (2017), reflective practice in nursing is critical for effective and person-centred, and evidence-based practice. The nursing students are required to continuously reflect on their knowledge and perceptions about service user care to improve challenge and improve knowledge and skills for safe and effective practice. Bulman and Schutz (2013) reiterate that reflective learning allows students to internally examine and explore concerns triggered by personal experience, resulting in creating and clarifying meaning regarding self and challenging conceptual perspectives. In this essay, Gibb's reflective model has been selected as a reflective tool because it is simple to remember and easy to use structure. Gibb's reflection model is also easy to apply and can improve personal efficacy in nursing practice. The model has six stages; Description, Feeling, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion, and Action Plan.
The service users and practitioners involved in this reflection will be anonymised to conceal their identity and privacy in line with the privacy and confidentiality requirements of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2018).
Description
In my placement, I was assigned a role of a shift coordinator. My supervisor supported me in delivering in that role. As a shift coordinator, my roles and responsibilities encompassed allocating responsibility to all staff on shift, supervising staff, responding to calls, receiving and delivering handover. I also participated actively in the zoning meeting. The facility was understaffed and had limited resources. The understaffing made nursing practice very exhausting and emotionally draining as nurses had to constantly move between service users trying to provide safe and effective care. I employed effective communication to coordinate working and improve efficiency in practice.
During the shift, I discussed with the multidisciplinary team (MDT) about two service users for which I had care along with my supervisor. I was also allocated to the deaf ward, where I used British sign language (BSL) and an interpreter to communicate with the service users. At first, I doubted my ability to communicate with service users with hearing problems. However, one of the nurses encouraged and supported me. Besides, the MDT expressed their confidence in me in handling such a situation. Eventually, I managed to form a therapeutic relationship with the service user and offered an episode of care. The supervisor commended my efforts and provided me with positive feedback, which meant a lot to me regarding my competency.
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