Acute Clinical Placement at Royal Adelaide Hospital - Essay Example

"Acute Clinical Placement at Royal Adelaide Hospital" is an engrossing example of a paper on care.
Royal Adelaide Hospital was the place for my acute clinical placement. My key area of work was at Neurosurgery Ward where I gathered feedback at the end of each shift. With reference to the Australian National Competency Standards, the feedback would assist me in identifying my key weaknesses and strengths in the scope of the Nursing and Midwifery board. NMBA (2010, P.4) argues that critical thinking skills indicate an essential competency standard in the area of professional development. Such occurs in self-reflection, self-assessment, research, and evidence evaluation. As such, nurses have the responsibility of engaging in the evaluation of their actions and decisions to determine whether they have the potential of meeting the expected standards. This including been in line with the set professional bench-mark. As illustrated by Paul & Elder (2007, p.6), students in all professions have the responsibility of recognizing their association between learning, education, and critical thinking. Such makes them respectable members of society.

Sub-clause 3.1 focuses on the essentiality of research relevance in improving the outcomes of individuals or groups. Such gives me a constant reminder that my responsibilities should not be focused on personal gains or supervisor expectations but on the need of identifying problems and issues, which demand a further investigation or research (NMBA 2010, p.4). Furthermore, I need to ensure that I am fully updated with reference to recent research, which aids me in the evaluation of personal nursing interventions, as well as comprehension of issues that need further improvement. I also aim at discussing with colleagues the necessity of research on different issues. As such, during my placement, I focused on developing critical thinking skills. As an example, I witnessed a scenario of clients suffering from acute pain. This made me think of how to improve pain management in the health care sector. Consequently, I read several articles on pain management and discussed it with my colleagues. NMBA (2010, p.5) gives coordination and provision of care as competency in conforming to the standards. Hence, I have to develop skills in organizing, coordinating, and providing quality nursing care while developing and implementing care plans, as well as assessing the success of such plans.

Sub-clause 5.1 focuses on the need to use relevant evidence-based assessment as the key framework of data collection for mental health and social-cultural issues among individuals or groups. This is a clear illustration of the need for nurses to develop essential skills of using available evidence collected from reports, individuals, groups, and documents in the process of professional experience and knowledge development. Appropriate data collection techniques need adoption in the process of collecting valid data. Further, the data types have to be varied based on psychological, physiological, cultural, and social values.

In addition, nurses should embrace the best theoretical framework in the process of formulating research questions. Such includes adopting practices, which indicate a responsibility towards cultural issues. This indicates a need for nurses to have an access to adequate computer facilities. However, during my placement, I was not lucky to engage in the process of data collection or conducting research. Nevertheless, I was responsible for comprehending the client’s cultural values. As an example, I faced the situation of a patient who was reluctant to engage me in a talk, and I was not comfortable touching her in order to intervene. After that, I discovered that she had a preference for female doctors with reference to her cultural background. The management of the hospital ensured that she got culturally responsive care.