This paper is reflection essay, exploring an aspect of care for a critical ill patient. Baillie (2005), described a reflection as a practice that provides evidence of skills development and increased clinical competence in nurses. The patient involves is a 60 years old female,

who presented with shortness of breath and chest pain. The diagnosed was infective Exacerbation Asthma. The reflective diary was impossible to write, as the patient was under our care for a week before she was discharged. Finally,

the role of the nurse and my experience of involvement will be addressed. Due to confidentiality purposes, the patient will be referred to as “Mrs A“, (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2008) (NMC).
Communication plays an essential part in all care delivered; according to Sulley and Dallas (2005), nurses have a role in ensuring that effective communication skills are utilised.

Communication is a two way process, is the only means a patient can get information about their illness William (2000). It can speed up recovery; reduce the number of complications stress, pain relief, and fear. Furthermore, requires engagement, empathy, an ability to listen and respond and it also requires time however, there is evidence that it’s not always done well in the health service (Arnold & Boggs, 2004).

According to NMC (2008) nurses have a professional responsibility and accountability where administering prescribed medication and must have a sound knowledge in the medication administered and its side effects. In addition to that Hendrick (2000) states that nurse have a duty of beneficence to their patients and this was done by identifying the needs of the patient and discussing her care with the doctor. Mrs A was prescribed Salbutamol 5mg nebulizers and Atrovent 500mcg,
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Benzylpenicillin 1.2g, Clarithromycin 500mg, and Hydrocortisone 100mg infusions was also given as prescribed by the doctor. Mrs A was also instructed to use peak expiratory flow which measures the lung volumes and airflow. Explanation of the medication and how to get It, was explained to Mrs A in order to ensure she understood the need for taking the medication and side effects, of which resulted in better recover .
According Hogun and Award (1992) supports this way of care provision as failure to discuss drug regimes with patients is one of the reason why patients refuse to comply with medication, which further causes relapses of their sickness.

According to Shaw (2006), nurses should be aware that a patient, as in Mrs A’s case, the higher the risk due to a decline in drug metabolism and elimination. It was therefore importance to start on low doses and gradually increase the dose if need be and nurses should be aware of the side effects such as nausea and drowsiness of drugs, (Herr 2002).
Furthermore, according to the NMC(2004) nurses must always update their skills and knowledge on current practice, in order to make the right decision and to be aware of any harmful effect the medication may have on the patient.

Furthermore, if Mrs A was not using her medication properly it could impact on her exacerbation; therefore, re-educated and ensured the proper use of her asthma medication (Herr 2002). This would cause patient been readmission to hospital.

Assignment: Exploring an Aspect of Care

Assignment: Exploring an Aspect of Care

Assignment: Exploring an Aspect of Care
In conclusion, this reflection explored the an aspect of care for a critical ill patient. The role of the nurse with regards to communication and medication has 3
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been mentioned. The Importance of reflection on practice enabled an improvement to professionalism and patient care.

In regards with my experience with Mrs A, Looking back I feel confidence in my abilities to conduct an effective assessment; when faced with similar situation in future and I have learned that having knowledge and experience in caring for a critical ill patient is a key to therapeutic.
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REFERENCES
Arnold, E. and Boggs, K. (2004) Interpersonal Relationships: Professional Communication Skills for nurses. 3rd ed. London: Saunders.

Baillie, L. (2005) Developing practical nursing skills. London: Hodder Arnold.
Hogun, P. and Award, G. (1992) Subjective response to narcoleptics and outcome in schizophrenia: A re-examination using two measures psychological medicine 22, 345-352
Knowles, N. & Charles, C. (2006) Innovation and teamwork: introducing multidisciplinary team ward rounds. Nursing Management 13(1): 28 31.
Lavery, I. (2003) Peripheral Intravenous Canulation and patient consent. Nursing Times 26(17):40-42.

Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) Code of professional conduct: standards of Medicines Management. London. Nursing and Midwifery Council
Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) Code of professional conduct: Standards for conduct, performance and ethics. London. Nursing and Midwifery Council
Sully P & Dallas J (2005) Essential communication skills for nursing. London Elsevier Mosby

Strobe, C.(2000) A Guide for Nurses and Midwifery. London, Macmillan Press.
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William, D (2000) Communications Skills in Practice: A practical Guide for Health Professionals, London, Jessica Kingsley.
Watson, R., & Tilley, S. (2004) Accountability in Nursing and Midwifery, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

 

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.