Critical Incident and Professional Awareness I have chosen to focus this reflection on an issue arisen at a meeting with myself, a client and his social worker whilst on placement with an nhs drug and alcohol service
Y3TC Word Count: 882
Critical Incident and Professional Awareness
I have chosen to focus this reflection on an issue arisen at a meeting with myself, a client and his social worker whilst on placement with an nhs drug and alcohol service. This critical incident and professional awareness reflection includes aspects of opportunistic learning. It follows a structured model of reflection based on that of Rolfe et al (2001). All names and places have been changed to maintain confidentiality, as required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code (NMC 2008). The client shall be referred to as Sam (C.O; 1).
Due to issues around risk to both staff and the client, the appointment could not take place at the client’s home address. For this reason the appointment took place at a local café, following negotiation with both Sam and my mentor (S.O; 25). Having a meeting at a public café brings about confidentiality issues on its own (C.O; 1, 2, 3). I realised I would have to be careful not to divulge any personal information and be aware of other people in the café listening in intently and of the need then to adjust the manner in which the appointment was proceeding. I was also aware of my client’s own potential feelings about his care being discussed in such a public place and remained vigilant as to his state of mind, in particular paying attention to his body language with regards what he was saying (C.O; 5). It was important for me to not come across as though I did not wish to discuss matters with him that he wished to discuss, despite the public nature of the venue and also to realise that he was very comfortable with discussing his past with people and did not appear to be embarrassed or try to conceal certain parts of it from others. I had to be confident that this was his choice and one he had capacity to make.