Preparation for Practice Reflective Account. I have been working with patient A, who has a past medical history and for medical reasons has Dysphasia
by
gmaybury (student)
What?
As part of my preparation for practice module, I will be writing a reflective account, about one episode of communication I had with a single patient, carrying out care whilst in clinical practice. I will be using the driscoll model of reflection, as this is my first reflective account and is quite simple to use. (Driscoll, 2007). Whilst writing my account patient confidentiality will be maintained at all times. (NMC,2008). And the patient I am basing my account on will be referred to as patient A.
I have been working with patient A, who has a past medical history and for medical reasons has Dysphasia. Dysphasia is impairment in communication, which is caused by brain damage to the left side of the brain which is responsible for language and communication. (Hicks, 2008). Communication with patient A was quite good, as they could say some words out of a sentence that I could understand and make sense of. Unfortunately due to medical reasons patient A suffered a setback which had worsened there dysphasia and was unable to communicate as well as they had done before. One occasion I want to reflect on is when I struggled to understand what patient A wanted to eat for lunch as everything I had asked, was answered with what sounded like “yes”. I had seen in the past, a Health Care Assistant (HCA), giving patient A food which they disliked, because they didn’t allow time to fully understand what patient A wanted. I wanted to take the time to allow patient A to communicate with me and for me to understand fully what their food choice was. I believe every patient deserves to be given sufficient time to communicate and express their feelings. I tried a number of methods to which some were unsuccessful, but I was persistent and I finally communicated with patient A successfully. Good communication is the basics of good nursing and builds therapeutic relationships with patients. (Anon, 2007).I had a couple of positive reactions off members of staff and a couple of negative ones too, mainly stating that because the ward is extremely busy at meal times and it is not always appropriate to spend too much time with a single patient asking what they would like to eat, to which I can understand to a certain degree. However The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) give clear guidelines to treating every patient as an individual to suit their needs and respecting their dignity. (NMC 2008).
