The practice situation that I found myself underprepared was when working as an RN and a patient who had an accident was brought when I was alone with no experience handling such a situation. I felt that I lacked the basic knowledge of handling the patient that had serious trauma related injuries, whose wounds were exposed, and had a hemorrhage. The lack of a prompt and systematic communication network due to understaffing led to poor communication on oncoming admission and therefore I felt uncomfortable handing a situation that I lacked control over. The nursing issue inherent to this situation was understaffing that leads to long working hours and lack of enough preparation to follow the required guideline for accident patients. The lack of enough personnel reduced the probability of seeking clarification or assistance froman experienced colleague.
I felt uncomfortable, underprepared, and unprepared when a patient from an accident was admitted into the hospital when I was alone because I had never handled such a situations before. I was unable to efficiently communicate with the ambulance personnel who would have provided information that would have made me prepare for the admission. The resuscitation room was unprepared with the fluids used for resuscitation being cold as opposed to the required warm. There was lack of type O rhesus blood standby that is often used in accident victims that require instant transmission due to massive blood loss. I also had no prior knowledge on the systematic guidelines that require me to control the airway and cervical spine of the patient, hemorrhage control, breathing, disability check, and exposure to avoid wasting time on non-critical injuries (Walji-Jivraj & Schwind, 2017).
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The nursing issue that created this situation was short staffing which poses a threat the safety and the health of a patient through increase of exposure rate. Many patients requiring emergency attention often lose their lives not because the nurses are incapacitated but just because of lack of proper and adequate care. The ratio of the patient to nurse rate creates a deficit where the patients do not get enough attention to fully recover (Williams & Burke, 2015). In particular, the rhesus O negative blood would have been restocked and the fluids would have been warmed in preparation for intensive admission if I was working with other staff. Especially experienced staff that would have handled the situation in a professional manner and guided me to partake in stabilizing the patient’s condition before the doctor arrives.
The underlying issue or esthetics were that the patient was in critical condition and needed instant attention despite the fact that I was inexperienced. I became aware of the context where there was no one that could assist me at the time. I felt that the ambulance personnel looked up to me to take charge of the situation and resuscitate the patient. At the same time the they lacked confidence in my process because they could see my level of discomfort at that point. The other clear fact was that there was lack of supplies such us blood and warm fluids to facilitate recovery processes. I also realized that I had a minimum amount of time so I had to act fast because the patient was also in critical condition.
My thoughts and feelings towards the personal according to capers Patterns of Knowledge were directed towards empathy on the part of the patient who was in extreme pain. The patient had put all hopes in us in taking care of their injuries so that they would be relieved from pain. They were scared of what might happen to them due to the various fractures while at the same time were experiencing trauma. They had no knowledge that they were at the hands of an inexperienced RN that had never practically dealt with an accident case. I felt that I had to restore hope to the patient despite my discomfort and therefore apply textbook knowledge to improve the intervention outcomes.
Some of the personal beliefs that impacted actions included the sanctity of life that I hold in high regard that make me spring to action even when I feel incapacitated. I uphold life as a valuable gift that must be handled with care and not with reckless abandon. Despite the strenuous working conditions, I had to rise above and beyond what my self beliefs represent so as to look at the situation from the perspective of principle. My personal beliefs on preserving life led me to find and alternative intervention so as to save the patient’s life by managing the symptoms until the medical practitioner on duty started their shift.
According to Locin, nurses often feel unprepared due to work overload, understaffing, and poor compensation (Locsin, 2016). These factors create a deficit where the number of patients surpass the personnel of health care institutions. Especially in emergency situations, require adequate staffing because lack of capacity leads to frequent loos of life. to nursing requires a person with humility a compassion, sensitivity, and dignity so as to restore their self-worth and esteem
Through these reflective practice opportunity I gained insight on the quick decision making criteria that relies on Carper’s Patterns of Knowing that are fundamental in conceptualizing the nursing knowledge. I have realized that I need to formulate a structural pattern so as to think clearly when making professional decisions. I also have to keep learning so that I can broaden my scientific nursing knowledge and integrate it into my intuition that informs action.
I think that the primary purpose of nursing actions in patient-care settings is to treat human responses to illnesses. This is because the nursing domain is founded on the administration of care to the patient that are integral to the assessment and intervention to illnesses. Nurses provide the opportunity for managing contextual concerns that address preventive steps that reduce the level of hazards that contribute to the disease diagnosis. The proactive approach of nursing in treating human response strengthens the overall intervention. Therefore, nurses work under the restorative, supportive, and promotive paradigms that increases the desirable human response to health intervention. Systematically treating human response is the essesnce of nursing and engages the patient and their environment in assessment, planning, and evaluation in a consistent, rational, logical, and deliberate manner.
References
Locsin, R. C. (2016). Technological competency as caring in nursing: Co-creating moments in nursing occurring within the universal technological domain. Journal of Theory Construction & Testing, 10(1), 5–11. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=121333170&site=ehostlive
Walji-Jivraj, N., & Schwind, J. K. (2017). Nurses’ experience of creating an artistic instrument as a form of professional development: an arts-informed narrative inquiry. International Practice Development Journal , 7(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.19043/ipdj.71.003
Williams, M. G., & Burke, L. L. (2015). Doing Learning Knowing Speaking: How Beginning Nursing Students Develop Their Identity as Nurses. Nursing Education Perspectives (National League for Nursing), 36(1), 50–52. https://doi.org/10.5480/12-908
