Health Promotion During Nursing Clinical Placement - Essay Example

Unit> Submitted> Reflective Writing: Nursing Clinical Placement INTRODUCTION: Adult nursing clinical placement is a very essential aspect in the administration of health care, and health promotion in general. The placements help in ensuring that there is the presence of specialization in healthcare (Dolan 20). On a personal note, clinical placement has played a very important role in offering me a solid opportunity for learning and developing in the field of healthcare. According to Harvard School of Public Health (2013), clinical placement assists one to gains practical experience in a more contextualized environment hence effective learning. This paper employs Gibb’s reflective model to analyses the issue of health promotion while nursing clinical placements. This is because the model is particularly useful in helping people learn from situations that they regularly experience. It follows through a cycle of description, feelings (main), evaluation, conclusion and action (Gibbs 32). The cycle ensures that one does a deep self-analysis. The focus of this paper shall be on health promotion in the course of the placement in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) ward. DESCRIPTION: “The A&E ward is usually the most action-packed section of a hospital, where things have to be done at a fast rate in order to save lives or relieve patients of their pain” (Jones 10). The A&E ward is the initial point of treatment of patients having severe injuries or illnesses that require immediate medical attention. Patients to the A&E ward are, in most cases, brought in by ambulances when in critical condition, or may come on their own if their condition is not all that bad. Whichever the case, the medical staff at the A&E ward always endeavors to put their best foot forward in treating the patients with the urgency that their injuries or illnesses demand (Jones 10). As such, this ward usually accommodates a patient only for a limited period before they are transformed to other wards in the hospital such as the intensive care unit (ICU). They may also be discharged home if it is safe. The Accident and emergency ward is a quick response ward that demands a wealth of prompt-action skills from the medical personnel (Sbaih 50). Any placement in the ward sharps one’s skills in as far as responding quickly to situations is concerned. Before the placement, one would view and conceptualize the profession as a very calm and slow one, given that it involves dealing with sick individuals. The A&E ward changes that narrow mindset. It opens up a person to the other side of nursing that requires on dropping their slow nature and acting quickly. It is very common to see nurses and other medical personnel in this ward running around, quite literally, with medical equipment or pushing trolleys and wheelchairs. FEELINGS: On a more personal note, my adult nursing clinical placement in the Accident and Emergency ward has been a very enriching experience for me. It has helped me to get in touch with the emotional part of my mind and make new discoveries. Empathy is one of the very key values that any successful nurse should possess. I found myself getting into the pain that my patients were undergoing, and thereafter, watching myself save lives and relieve pain was simply tremendous. In addition to that, I have since developed the theoretical skills I learnt in the classroom environment and upgraded them to practical ones. Placement in the Accident and Emergency ward has provided a good platform for me to acquire the skill of quick response. As explained earlier, working in this ward requires a tough balance between rapid working speed and keeping calm. Although initially I did not know how to strike the balance, I am now well equipped with the ability and skill. Another practical know-how that I managed to acquire is that of accurate decision making under intense pressure. It goes without saying that this is usually a rather difficult skill to harness unless one is in a practical environment. As such, the placement was very helpful in shaping some of the most important skills needed in the profession. Placement at the A&E ward requires great mettle. According to Lynn, “Any nurse who finds themselves at the accident and emergency ward must be well equipped with the technical know- how of how to go about treating handling patients with serious conditions” (Gary 102). Personally that is one of the most fundamental skills one gets from being placed in the accident and emergency wing. Handling of patients in critical condition is an art to me. Being in the ward, I managed to take note of how the experienced staff of the ward followed a specific set of procedures in their administration of health care. Of course, I had to chip in and follow in their footsteps. Patients in the A&E ward are a little different from the other common ones in the other wards. They usually are in a critical condition by way of their injuries or illnesses (Hyman 178). In most cases, I used to receive patients that have already undergone first aid by the ambulance staff. In other cases, however, the nurse commences the handling from the initial stages; hence more professional input is needed. Being placed in the Accident and Emergency ward played a big role in molding my decision-making skills. Human beings work and think best when under pressure. As already mentioned earlier in the paper, this ward is one that exerts a lot of pressure to the nurse because of the pace of doing things. Therefore, in the course of administering health services in the A&E ward, a string of decisions is inevitable (Skinner 157). I had to decide which medical procedure to employ, whether or not some medication is necessary, and when to administer it. Remember that every decision has to make with no time for evaluation and analysis. As such I got to learn how to approach situations in the profession with better decision-making skills, even when the prevailing conditions do not provide for the luxury of time to think. EVALUATION: Onto a whole new level of the paper, it is good to evaluate the vital role of the Accident and Emergency ward in healthcare systems. One thing that I came to appreciate about the Accident and Emergency wing of the hospital is its utmost importance in saving lives. In fact, that was the paramount reason I decided to join the nursing profession: to help in saving lives. That keeps me going. Each morning it is the urge to save lives that motivate me to wake up in time and prepare for work. The A&E ward is key in as far as health promotion is concerned about giving patients the opportunity to live again. This ward handles patients from very bad accidents (including gruesome road accidents) who would otherwise succumb to their injuries (Berman 134). They are then transferred to the intensive care unit. The beauty of nursing is that at times just a single medical procedure is what is required to save someone’s life. Besides, the Accident and Emergency ward plays a role in relieving patients of their intense pain. It gets to my nerves when I see a patient writhing in pain when they get to the ward. People crying out loud due to pain are a common sight and sound particularly when they arrive at the ward. Whenever we were in the A&E ward and heard the sirens of the ambulance, the next thing we expected were wails and shouts. This was usually so emotional, but then, being the good nurses we are, we never let our emotions go beyond empathy. The best part of it all, nevertheless, was the point where I got to relieve the patient’s pain and watch them smile later. I liked my placement to the A&E ward since it was also a platform of relieving patient’s pain. That is barely all. The other role played by the Accident and Emergency ward is that of preventing further compounding of illnesses (Walsh 54). In my practice at the ward, I came across a good number of patients who had injuries that had great potential of escalating into very bad infections, such as tetanus. It is notorious for affecting unattended injuries obtained from metal cuts (Herlihy 97). I was the one responsible for administering anti-tetanus medication. This is administered only in the A&E ward. As such the ward comes in handy in helping prevent tetanus and other infections from becoming over-blown and developing into other worse medical conditions. CONCLUSION: To sum it up, this paper is an in-depth reflection of the experience during nursing clinical placement in the Accident and Emergency ward. During this period, I got to learn a lot and build myself professionally. I went through what really happens in the practical world of nursing, particularly in the A&E ward. Throughout my placement, I also got to appreciate the vital role played by the Accident and Emergency wing in saving lives and containing illnesses. At the end of the day, it emerges that Gibb’s reflective model has been the most effective for this paper since it has provided a platform to make connections and clarify the understanding of the nursing profession. ACTION: The next time I find myself in the A&E ward, I will be better placed to provide quality health promotion. The initial experience there, which has been described in the essay, taught me a lot of nursing skills that I would use next time. Particularly, I would make sure that I respond very fast to situations so as to save lives. In addition, the A&E ward involves working under intense pressure; hence, I would employ prompt decision making skills to ensure the procedures flow smoothly. Works Cited Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS). Accident and Emergency ward labour—2010 Results. U.S. Department of Labour, February 6, 2012. 2011. Viewed April 18, 2013. Burke, D., Roy, E. Key Topics in Accident and Emergency Medicine. 2003. Print. Berman, Laurence. Accident and Emergency Radiology: A Survival Guide. 2005, Print. Dolan, B., & Holt, L. Accident and Emergency, Theory into Practice. 2013. Print. Ferguson, David. Accident and Emergency Medicine. Harvard University Press. 1998. Print. Gary, Jones, Endacott, R., Crouch, R. Emergency Nursing Care: Principles and Practice. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. 2003. Print. Gibbs, Graham. Learning by Doing: A Guide To Teaching And Learning Methods. 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