One of the most outstanding attributes of professional practice is the concept of reflective practice, which entails the ability to reflect one’s actions with the main objective of engaging in constant professional learning (Bolton, 2010). Reflective practice in the context of the nursing profession lays more emphasis on the consideration of the practical values and theoretical frameworks that govern the nursing profession, which can be deployed to facilitate a reflective and reflexive practice. Such as approach in the nursing profession is important because it results in developmental insight. Reflective practice is also a vital requirement in the context of practice-based professional learning like nursing, whereby learning at the individual level is facilitated through professional experiences compared to the conventional knowledge transfer (Hendricks & Mooney, 1996). This paper is a reflective essay based on John’s model of critical reflection with regard to the experiences in the nursing profession. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether the previously identified clinical learning objectives have been realized in accordance with the ANMC competency standards for a registered nurse.
John’s model for critical reflection makes use of a structured mode of reflection to offer nursing professionals frameworks that are aimed at facilitating greater understanding. John’s model is designed to be executed by sharing with a counselor, and this plays an integral role in transforming the experience to learned knowledge at a rate that is faster compared to reflection alone (Jasper, 2003). According to John’s model, experienced knowledge and the capacity of the nursing profession to access, comprehend and implement practice information that has been gained by using empirical strategies are important for professional development. As such, reflection takes place through an assessment of an individual’s thoughts and emotions and the context of their experience. John’s model of critical reflection adopted fives ways of knowing in relation to the nursing practice, which included aesthetics, individual self-awareness, ethics and empirics (Johns & Freshwater, 2007). Aesthetics refers to the individual experiences and is determined by the objectives of clinical nursing, outcomes for the patient and the reasons for a particular response. Self-awareness is determined by the internal factors that affect a person and how one feels in a given situation. Ethics entails moral knowledge and is determined by the extent to which the actions are equated to the beliefs and the underlying factors that compels a person to act distinctly. Empirics usually entail the contributions of scientific knowledge during the nursing placement (Mamede & Schmidt). The following section provides an overview of the learning objectives that were achieved and a critical reflection of why some were not achieved.
The placement was an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of my nursing practice in accordance with ANMC standards of registered nurses. In this regard, most of the clinical objectives were achieved. The clinical objective of administering medication in the required was achieved. This can be mainly attributed to the knowledge regarding the ethical and legal implications of the nursing practice (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2008). It is a requirement for a practicing nurse to have knowledge of the legislation relating to the nursing practice when administering to a patient. The second objective that was met was participation in planning, implementation and evaluation of the nursing care. The primary objective under this domain was to work effectively with other medical professionals to ensure a multidisciplinary approach to clinical matters (Rolfe & Freshwater, 2001). It is important to understand that medical care extends beyond nursing and incorporate other professions such as physicians, pediatricians and counselors to be effective. Therefore, a collective effort is needed, and this offered a framework that facilitated the achievement of this objective (Tad & Steve, 2009). The third objective that was met was the requirement to display leadership skills during the placement. This because the nursing environment is dynamic and such operations can be run effectively depending on the decisions that are made by one leader. In addition, the nature nursing work does not need an authoritarian approach since it will be subject to mixed reactions, which will significantly impede the effectiveness of nursing operations. This was achieved using interpersonal skills and therapeutic relationship practice to make noncompliant patients participate in their self-care (Hendricks & Mooney, 1996). This needed upholding good relationship between the nurse and patience and fellow practitioners in order to ensure that administration of medication was effective. Collaboration with other professionals during the placement played s significant role in enhancing the nursing leadership skills and understanding the contemporary trends in nursing practice (Murray, 2008).
Other clinical objectives were not achieved during the placement; this included the objective of combining professional knowledge with the clinical situation in order to make proper decisions. A notable impediment that led to the failure of achieving this objective could be attributed to the fact that my placement did not entail a leadership position, and this was a significant barrier towards the implementation of effective decision-making approaches. However within my reach was the capacity to assess and evaluate health information for critical decisions such as patient transfer (Somerville & Keeling, 2004).
In conclusion, the placement offered a challenging environment to test my capacity within the nursing practice. Most of the clinical objectives were met, and could be attributed to collective effort with fellow practitioners during the placement. The limitations and challenges faced during the placement could mainly be attributed to the capacity limitations of a graduate nurse compared to practicing nurse.
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