Wound Dressing Techniques and Applying Them in Practical Sense, Methods of Locating Wounds in the Body and Strategies for Reducing Pain - Research Proposal Example

Topic: Nursing Placement Learning Reflection Name: Student ID: Institution: Tutor’s name: Date of Submission: 1. Introduction This paper presents a learning experience during placement in a Nursing Home Facility by presenting experiences that would be useful in supporting and analyzing new learning strategies. It provides various experiences during the placement such as a variety of services offered at the health facility and determines any malpractices that were observed among workers at the heath facility. The main services that are learnt during the placement include massage therapy, Dietitians, Doctors’ practices and general first aid procedures at the health facility. During this placement, other areas that provided exposure to the learner include methods of treating wounds, their location and methods of treating them. The learner was also exposed to a number of medication procedures and methods of preventing errors during medication processes. In addition, it involves an illustration of experiences in the services required from a nursing professional by providing a report about the conditions that were observed at the health facility which required application of nursing principles. Finally, this paper presents methods in which the experiences at the placement organization could be documented for reference purposes and extraction of information for professional use by the learner (Levett-Jones and Bourgeois, 2011). The experiences during the placement process are used to develop a learning strategy which is useful in understanding nursing professional activities at work place. 2. Learning objectives The following are the main objectives of this study: To learn about wound dressing techniques and apply them in practical sense To determine methods of locating wounds in the body and strategies for reducing pain. To learn about methods of cleaning wounds and their identification and application of simple medication procedures that enables the procedures to be at the fingertips of workers at the health facility. To determine the posture that should be taken by patients when providing drugs to the patient to avoid regurgitation. To ensure the correct procedures are followed when administering medication to the correct patient and providing appropriate dosage at the right time and documentation of the activities. 3. Analysis of preferred and new learning strategies It is necessary to ensure a specific learning strategy is used in order to understand the general nursing practice. This is based on the experiences from the placement report. The following are methods in which learning process can be achieved based on experiences during the placement process (Crisp et al., 2013). During treatment of wounds, it is required that the learners should be taught methods of locating wounds by touching the body of the patient gently. This should be followed by application of pain reduction methods such as analgesia and placing the patient in a warm surrounding. This should be provided in an individualized manner in a similar way to the experience during the placement (Levett-Jones & Bourgeois, 2011). It was observed that nurses focused on providing patients with personalized services. In order for learners to understand the skills of dressing wounds, it is necessary that they observe certain actions performed by the person in charge of the activity and take note of actions that ensure the wound is maintained clean and first aid is provided to the patient (Dougherty & Lister, 2011). They also need to determine techniques used by the health worker to reduce pain to the patient and methods for securing and dressing the wound and equipment used to accomplish this task. Learners also need to observe methods of using cleansing agents in identification of wounds in addition to other strategies used during pain reduction such as removal of dressing. Learners also need to focus on oral medication procedures and the level of care that should be taken when administering the medication to the patients. They also need to take care of maintaining hygienic conditions such as washing hands and other safety measures that should be at the fingertips of the learner (Jacob & Sonali, 2007). Learners also need to observe procedures performed on the patient to ensure the patient is in an apt position and do not experience difficulty or fatigue when medication is being performed on them (Crisp et al., 2013). It also involves checking medication errors that need to be avoided such as the possibility of administering drugs when the patient has already been provided with the drugs. During the process of administering the drugs, it is necessary to ensure the correct dosage is provided to the right patient and the right route is taken (Jamieson, McCall, Whyte & Jamieson, 2007). The learners will also need to observe oral medication procedures and instances where drugs are administered negatively to patients and the resulting interaction with other drugs and methods of dealing with complications such as bodily reactions when the drugs are administered to the patients such as irritations of the body (Crisp et al., 2013). In addition, learning process needs to ensure learners are introduced to documentation processes that need to be applied during keeping of medical records and significance of these activities to the medical profession. The processes of using the documents during monitoring the patient’s recovery also need to be introduced to learners during learning process. Furthermore, learning process should involve introducing learners into a number of codes of ethics that need to be observed during nursing practice that ensures the practice is done professionally and duties are discharged according to requirements of the nursing profession (Lynn, 2010). Learners should also be introduced to practical scope of nursing practice where the scope of the practice is identified and theoretical knowledge of codes of practice are implemented in decision-making process. The following table shows the proposed learning process that ensures all important areas of nursing practice in the organization are achieved. Learning Objectives Strategies Resources Evaluation Exposure to wound location, dressing and cleaning practices Introduction to patients having wounds and providing first aid services such as dressing of wounds, cleaning the wound and application of medications on the wound Location of wound by gentle touch, use of adhesives to dress wounds, use of cleaning agents and dressing the wound by use of predetermined techniques Ability to locate a wound in the body of the patient with little difficulties, ability to clean the wound and apply adhesives in addressing the wound. Attainment of oral administration of drugs practices and posture that the patient should be placed Identification of instances where drugs are likely to cause reactions in the gastro-intestinal tract Making the patient stay in a determined posture during drug administration. Use of drugs for pain reduction for patients experiencing pains in the wounds, following instructions from medical practitioners Ability to understand circumstances that result into interaction of drugs in the body and actions that can be taken to avoid these conditions. Application of documentation practices Observing methods by which important documents are stored and referenced during medical activities, using the documents to monitor progress of the patient. Use of documents that record information regarding patient conditions and storing the documents for further reference. Ability to use storage equipment to store information regarding patients attended to, applying referencing skills to track the progress of the patient during medication period. Observe codes of ethics according to nursing profession Explaining the codes applicable in each activity when attending to patients’ needs such as codes relating to medication, posture during medication, documentation and dressing of wound and controlling reactions when drugs are administered to patients. Performing various tasks with consideration of codes of ethics that need to be observed during medication, cleaning of wounds and provision of drugs. Ability to discharge nursing activities by observing nursing principles that guide nursing profession. 4. Specific acknowledgements of health services/ consumer experience on placement There are a number of health services for consumer experience that were gained during the placement at the Nursing Home facility. These experiences provided the competence that ensures the right learning strategy could be developed to assist in creating exposure to nursing practice. Some of the areas of nursing practice that were useful in improving practical competence in the nursing field include the following: There are a number of cautious measures that need to be taken during medication process such as avoiding administering medication to the wrong patient or providing medication when the patient has already been provided with the drugs (Dougherty & Lister, 2011). It was also possible to apply theoretical knowledge gained in the sub-topic of nursing in the process of nursing of wounds and identification of causes of pain. This ensured acquisition of competence that could be applied in practical sense such as assisting patients who have wounds and need immediate attention (Jacob & Sonali, 2007). In addition, skills of identification of wounds were imparted and it has been possible to get the competence for locating wounds in patients and apply a number of pain reduction measures and medications to patients’ suffering from the condition (Crisp et al., 2013). In addition, the placement process resulted into attainment of competences of methods of dressing wounds and the facilities and equipment that need to be used to assist patients suffering from the condition. In the area of oral medication, competences were obtained in identification of cases where there is the possibility of reaction between administered drugs and other drugs or gastro-intestinal tract and the competence of making sense from these complications by assisting the patient take the right measures (Levett-Jones and Bourgeois, 2011). References Crisp, J., Taylor, C., Douglas, C., & Rebeiro, G. (2013). Potter & Perry's fundamentals of nursing (8th ed.). Chatswood, N.S.W: Mosby. Dougherty, L., & Lister, S. E. (2011). The Royal Marsden Hospital manual of clinical nursing procedures. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Jacob, A., R, R., & Sonali, J. (2007). Clinical nursing procedures: The art of nursing practice. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical publishers. Jamieson, E. M., McCall, J. M., Whyte, L. A., & Jamieson, E. M. (2007). Clinical nursing practices. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier. Levett-Jones, T. & Bourgeois, S. (2011). An Essential Guide to nursing students: The clinical placement. Chatswood: Elsevier Australia. Lynn, P. B. (2010). Taylor's handbook of clinical nursing skills. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Read More