Nursing Reflection on Aged Care Facility
APPENDIX
Previous Placement Experience as a Nurse Student at Aged Care Facility
Nursing at the aged home care facility was a great experience that I achieved in my recent past years. As the student nurse, I had the duties to help the aged persons with their daily routine. In my duties, I had to admin the medication, ensure that the residents have access to medical services both within and outside the facility, provide them health and nutritionally balanced food, monitoring their health and keep documentation, provide assistance in bathing and changing clothes and ensuring the cleanliness and safety of the facility while adhering to Occupational Safety and Health standards. As a student nurse, my main duty was to act as an observant during wound review and wound dressing following aseptic non-touch technique (ANTT). During my observations, I learnt a lot regarding protocols of changing wound dressings and aseptic techniques. During the wound dressing, I was required to visually check and evaluate the smell, amount of blood or ooze (excretions) and the size of wounds. Moreover, during my placement time, I had to ensure that each inhabitant at the facility was treated with equality regardless of ethnicity and culture. However, at many cases, I felt unsure of manually handling client safety incidents for which I used to consult with seniors. Some issues that I highlighted for upper management were non-separation of dirty and clean areas for disposing off gloves and wound dressing. I believe that with concrete concentration on the given tasks and apt responses towards issues helped me in meeting the challenges during my placement in aged care facility.
CRITICALLY THINKING ABOUT SCENARIO
Using Standard “Think Critically and Analyze Nursing Practice”
The practice of nursing requires the clinical reasoning and critical thinking at every stage throughout their career (Berman, Snyder, & Frandsen, 2016). The first standard of “think critically and analyze the nursing practice” has topped out to be of utmost importance for nurse students to consider. Critical thinking is the process requires the nurses to use higher level thinking for defining the client’s problem, examine the evidence-based practice in caring the patient and make the choices in delivering needed care. Burke et al. (2018) argue that nurses play a critical role in helping to meet the needs of aging population. During the placement at aged healthcare facility, the nurses are deemed to maintain patient/client confidentiality, arrive at a set time of 9:00am and wear the identification badge during duty hours. During the duty time, it was mandatory for the nursing staff to record information about aged people regarding their medication, nutritional needs and therapies according to the set guidelines.
At the aged healthcare facility, it was demanded by nursing students to understand and respect the rights of the aged people and discuss the care provision with clients regularly. The most important duty of the nursing students at the facility was to seek senior assistance during conflict with the client and manage the issues in accordance with ethical principles set by the organization (Annear, Lea, & Robinson, 2015). Special focus was on maintaining a holistic approach to healthcare by understanding the healthcare needs of culturally diverse populations. At the facility, the nursing students were mandated to follow Single Aged Care Quality Framework-Quality Standards that highlighted the care recipient lifestyles and promoted respect for identity, culture and diversity.
At the aged care facility, the organization was governed by Aged Care Act of 1997 under which nursing students had to follow rules for things like quality of care and the rights of people receiving the care (Australian Government Department of Health, 2019). Laws on diversity and discrimination were also applied to aged care people in the facility. Moreover, the aged care facility had also followed the Aged Care Diversity Framework for ensuring that the services that are being provided are respectful and inclusive (Australian Government Department of Health, 2019). The facility incorporated flags, artworks, literature and décor that supported all cultures and created a responsive and inclusive environment. As a student nurse, it was mandatory to create an inclusive environment and engage aged people in activities and cultural events that they enjoy according to their ethnicity.
The environment at aged facility was friendly where all the student nurses were mandated to use suitable language while avoiding the jargons. All the student nurses were mandated to use officially approved abbreviations upon taking notes during therapies of aged people. Moreover, all the nurses were obligated to act as an observant during clinical audits for understanding the inconsistencies and understanding the needs of aged care more frequently.
REFLECTION AND IMPACT ON PATIENT
The overall practice of student nurse at the aged care facility was an enlightening experience as it allowed the students to understand the needs of aged people more closely and examine the wound dressing and assessment procedures carefully using ANTT. During the wound review, the student nurses had to perform set of rules before and after the dressing and assessment of wound. It was identified during the placement course that the attitudes of nurses towards and knowledge about ageing process and expertise in wound assessment could affect the therapeutic process (Nayeri, Gholizadeh, Mohammadi, & Yazdi, 2015). The elderly people usually demand the care that could be provided by well-trained nurses with qualification and expertise. According to Nayeri et al. (2015), the inability of nurses to coordinate with family members regarding care activities can negatively impact the aged people. It is considered that nurses who show empathy along with technical competences can provide better services to aged people.
Bahrami et al. (2019) also pointed out that the elderly people generally feel safe and happy when the nurses exhibit availability and caring behavior. Additionally, according to Purvis et al. (2015), the nurses who maintain close watch on elderly people tend to outperform those that do not. Chen et al. (2015) also reported that nursing students’ empathy and attitude towards the aged people can improve the services given to them.
The most challenging part of the placement was to keep communication and fulfill the needs of frail older adults as they exhibited the cognitive impairment, decreased mobility, decreased functional skills and complicated medical history. Increased knowledge and awareness by student nurses towards frail adults profile promoted the effective therapeutic interactions and engagement with the elderly people. According to Deasey et al. (2015), the communication can be fragmented between the student nurses and the elderly people when they tend to put labels on the aged people like “elderspeak”. Moreover, the manners and voice of student nurses can also positively or negatively impact the aged care services.
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