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December 28, 2021
IT Risk Management Sample
December 28, 2021Description
The reflective essay is based on an episode that occurred the current week in the clinical practice scenario in which I was directly involved. I was working in my morning shift in the elderly patient section of the clinic along with my mentor. We were doing a routine check when an elderly patient was rushed there since she had fallen from a flight of stairs. She was an 80-year-old lady who had cracked her head and lost a significant amount of blood. She seemed conscious but disoriented. Her daughter had accompanied her and she seemed nervous for her mother.
The doctor and I quickly attended to her so that her condition could be stabilized. I checked her pulse rate, and blood pressure rate and was by her side the entire time. Within five minutes the clinical staff got the equipment ready to stitch the wound on her forehead and it was done by the doctor. Then a full-body x-ray was conducted which revealed that she had not injured herself elsewhere (Ambrose, Paul & Hausdorff, 2013).
Reflection
That clinical situation was very intense at that point in time. Since the patient was an elderly lady, the criticality was higher (Al-Faisal, 2006). When I first saw her in her bloody clothes, I got anxious at first since it reminded me of a similar incident that had occurred at my home. But soon I regained my composure and understood the vitality of my role as a nurse in the clinical case.
I constantly spoke to the patient so that she would not lose consciousness while doing the health checks. I tried to make her feel comfortable and reduce her nervousness. Since when she was rushed to the clinic, there were few patients in the ward, I could give her all the necessary attention. After the process was followed she stabilized and her daughter thanked the doctor and me for our instant help.
Analysis
Even though the clinical environment was stressful, the positive thing was my proactive attitude towards the situation. I established a polite conversation with her to understand the reasons for her fall. She said that she had forgotten to wear her glasses and she missed a couple of steps (El-Khoury et al., 2013).
Since older people fall quite frequently, this experience helped me to identify a few creative intervention strategies like enhancing their awareness about the first-aid application, exercising techniques to balance and reduce the consequences of falls, etc. This situation was tense but I have seen many instances where the conditions of patients are much more severe.
Evaluation
The nursing situation encourages me to enhance my proactive nature while dealing with patients. Being politely proactive is a necessity in the healthcare situation since it releases the tension of the involved parties i.e. patient and healthcare staff (Hawley-Hague et al., 2014). If again I would face a similar situation, I would try to conduct overall health assessments to identify the underlying illness of the patient at a better speed. I would properly review the prescribed medication so that the fall risk can be minimized. The nursing event has taught me a lot of skills that I need to sharpen in future.
References
Ambrose, A. F., Paul, G., & Hausdorff, J. M. (2013). Risk factors for falls among older adults: a review of the literature. Maturitas, 75(1), 51-61.
Al-Faisal, W. (2006). Falls Prevention for Older Persons. Eastern Mediterranean Regional Review online at www. who. int/ageing/projects/EMRO. pdf.
El-Khoury, F., Cassou, B., Charles, M. A., & Dargent-Molina, P. (2013). The effect of fall prevention exercise programmes on fall induced injuries in community dwelling older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMj, 347, f6234.
