Reflective Professional Development - Case Study Example

Running Head: Critical Incident Analysis Title: Critical Incident Analysis Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Outline Introduction Description Feelings Evaluation Analysis Conclusion Action plan References Introduction Critical incident is any occurrence thought to present risk of significant bodily harm, occurrences that has taken place and are produced by our perception towards the situation. It can also be defined as understanding of the significance of the occurrence. Critical incident requires not being a dramatic occurrence but one that enable you to pause and think or raise question. The questions may be in regard to individual aspects of your beliefs, values, attitude or behaviour. While analysing any critical incident, one has to look at the setting of the occurrence, people involved, descriptions of physical and emotional response to the occurrence together with the action taken (O’Conor, 2008, pp. 87-93). The paper purposes to analyse critical incident that took place in an elderly home care on a patient who did not want to take up the medication administered to her. This will entail reflecting the occurrence, analysing, concluding then stating the outcome of the incident in relation to the analysis. To attain the analysis effectively, I will implement Gibbs model of reflection. The model will allow more reflection to the critical incident providing better understanding of the incident to the reader of this article. This will provide broader details from the incident for analysis. This is performed through the process of assessment, involving ones character, belief qualities, limitations, strengths and values allowing an individual to perceive themselves in particular situation and honestly. The model will provide me with ability to visualise myself in the situation and analyse my personal feelings towards the situation. The model involves both reflections in the practice and reflection in action (Williams, 2001, pp. 29-32). The analysis of the critical incident will be illustrated in six headings which are supposed to guide me in attaining the final analysis of the incident. These include; description of what really happened, my personal feelings towards the incident, evaluation of the incident determining the bad and good about the incident, analysis section to attain the sense from the incident, conclusion, to determine what I could have done and finally the action plan illustrating the steps taken to control the same incident in future. Description The critical incident on study occurred in an elderly home care centre while on my nursing practicum. The name used in the context isn’t the correct name for the patient for the sake of confidentiality. The case was as a result of dementia infection. Dementia is a well known disease among the old people in the society, it occurs due to continues reduction of the cognitive functioning in the body of the individual. In this particular case, the patient was affected through neck of femur breakage which ended up exaggerating the complication that she had before. According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, such patient had to be referred to a better area where she could receive close examinations on how she was fairing on with the medication given to her. The paper is about the change of the administration or medication to a patient in a given hospital. Mrs Jackson, who is 82 years old, is a white English woman who had been diagnosed before with infection of dementia that resulted due to her neck breakage. While at the care ward, she refuses to take the medication given to her and thus, being in charge of her health, we had to search for other ways that we could use to ensure that the patient takes up the medication given to her. It was at 4 o’clock in the evening at the Bupa care home, when the doctor insisted that Thioridazine which is an anti psychotic drug had to be given to the patient. The patient refused to take up the medication claiming that it makes her numb, because of this; I came up with another strategy that we as nurses could use to ensure that the medication is administered to the patient. I shared the idea with the other nurses and agreed not to tell the doctor or the patient about the way we will administer the medication to her. Thus, we crushed the medication in a glass of orange juice that the patient was to be offered with. Feelings With the effect of the medication to the patient, I felt pity for her but at the same time; I had to come up with a solution to save her life. I had to think fast on the way in which the nurses could administer the medication without her conscience. To attain this, I talked with other nurse on crushing the medicine then add to her juice so that she could take the medication every time she have her glass of juice. Evaluation In my own evaluation of the incident, it was important for us nurses to administer the medication to the patient but not through juice. This is to the fact that, juice contains components that might react with the medication thus lowering the rate of drug reaction in patient’s body. At the same time, it was not fair enough, for us nurses not to inform the patient while taking up the medication. This brings out the aspect of lack of communication and honesty between us nurses and the patient. Analysis In this particular incident, the personal issue is that the patient has to be comfortable in administering the medication while the nurses have to accomplish their professional responsibility of ensuring that the patient receives the medication given to her in a more comfortable manner. To achieve this, we had to understand the patient and look for ways that will encourage the patient to be administered the medication. The incident was seen to be critical as when the patient could insist that she does not want to take the medication given to her, she may have ended up loosing her life. Thus, I together with other nurses had to be more concerned with the patient’s life and establish another way of administering the medication to her. While doing this, we had to ensure that legal and ethical principles in nursing profession are put into consideration. Therefore, the paper will tend to reflect on the incident and analyse it with reference to the legal and ethical principles in nursing profession. Principle of nonmaleficence states that do no harm to someone, at the same time the result of the principle of beneficence (McHale & Gallagher, 2003, pp. 102- 116). It implies that, no matter what the step that one takes, whether good or evil, he or she has to ensure that he causes no harm to the recipients. To observe this ethical principle, I together with other nurses had to crush the medication into the glass of patient’s juice. This indicated that, as much as we insisted on the medication that the patient did not want, we were still helping her to prolong her life span on earth. Thus, it is clear that, we had good motives while administering the medication to the patient through the glass of juice. This shows how responsible the other nurses and I were in making sure that the patient gets well. Principle of beneficence illustrates the kindness, charity and the mercy that one has to posses while attending to any patient at the hospital. It illustrates the level of love to one another, the humanity together with the promotion of the good of others in the society (Richard, 2004, pp. 38-47). In relation to the above incident, this has been illustrated clearly I together with other nurses tried to understand the feelings of the patient and the effect of the medication to her body. But because of the love and humanity that we had on her, to save her life, we tried to come up with other ways in which we could use to administer the medication to the patient. The principle is also concerned with the obligation of one to act for the benefit of the other party. When the patient is unable to open the mouth to take the medication, it was our responsibility as nurses to take it into consideration to ensure that the patient undertakes the medication to save her life. Due to this, it forced us to plan for other strategy that we could use to ensure that the patient takes up the medication without much struggle with them. Principle of autonomy: autonomy is the capability for self determination. In the context of the health care ethics, it means to feel free from any type of intimidation in deciding to act and that others are compelled to protect confidentiality (Thompson, Melia & Boyd, 2000, p. 25). It does not mean that the other party has to cooperate for the other person to practice the exercise. In relation to the above incident, the principle of autonomy was in practice when my fellow nurses and I decided on crushing the medication into the patient’s glass of juice without incorporating the patient herself. With the secret between us about the content in the glass of juice, the patient was able to take the medication without knowing. Principle of justice is all about the concept of the human rights in any society together with the common good and human rights. It is one of the most powerful legal and ethical principles in the nursing department in any given country (Staunton & Chiarella, 2003, p. 28). It entails the equal distribution of the individual needs and responsibilities in society. In the health care department, the principle demands for equal access to the health care facilities and services essential for human living. It also implies that the society has a duty to persons with serious needs. It is with this reason; my colleagues and I at the Bupa health care centre saw the importance of changing the way of administering the medication to Mrs. Jackson. The patient had a problem with the opening of the mouth to take the medication and some times, she could even spit it out. Thus we thought it wise to put it in her glass of juice so that by the time she would be taking the juice, she will also be taking the medication needed for her survival. Ethically, we were able to value diversity through understanding the short comings of the patient and coming up with other option to administer the medication to the patient. Through this, it is clear that, we as nurses get to understand the patients’ ability and inability that can enable us to get ways that we can use to assist them. Conclusion Reflecting on the above incident, we can conclude that the approach that we implemented was a short term strategy. This is because; with time, the patient will get tired taking juice thus forcing us to come up with other approach. Due to this, we could incorporate the same strategy in a glass of drinking water of the patient. This will be much better as no chemical will be reacting with the medication. At the end of the incident, we were able to learn to be on watch out for some of the patients with complications in the administration of medications given to them at the health centres. We as nurses have to be in good position to come up with strategies that will make the patient comfortable in taking the medication through introduction of new methods of administering medication to the patients. Action Plan In the case where the incident persists, the patient will now be liable for the use of the intravenous drip. This is when the medication is administered into the veins of the patient directly. It is normally the fastest way of administering medication to the body system of an individual. This will provide the patient with the fast response to the medication with little struggle on the administration of it. References: McHale, J. & Gallagher, A. Nursing and Human Rights United Kingdom: Butterworth Heinemann Publisher, 2003 pp. 102-127. O’Conor, A. The Use of Reflective Practice on Critical Incidents Journal of Neonatal Nursing vol. 14 (3) 2008 pp. 87-93. Richard, A. J. Moral Limits on the Demands of Beneficence in the Ethics of Assistance Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 pp. 38-67. Staunton, P. J. & Chiarella, M. Nursing & the Law Australia: Elsevier Australia Publisher 2003 pp. 28-30. Thompson, I. E., Melia, K. M. & Boyd, K. M. Nursing Ethics New York: Elsevier Health Sciences Publisher 2000 pp. 24-26. Read More