Introduction:
Reflection is own’s own response regarding certain experiences, events, and situations which are written in own language (Bowman & Addyman, 2014). This assignment will discuss my personal reflection that I felt during my practical laboratory while measuring blood pressure. The aim of this paper is to write a reflection regarding blood pressure measurement that I learned during my first semester, practical class. Blood pressure is defined as a force exerted by the blood in the arterial wall during contraction and relaxation of the heart muscle. In this reflection, I will be using six steps of Gibbs reflective model which is description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. Description:According to the course curriculum of Fundamental of Nursing (FON), we have to attend 10 weeks of lab class for skills assessment. In week 6 along with Temperature, Pulse and Respiration, Blood pressure measurement was the main objective and focus. In that day, two tutors were guiding me and my other friends to monitor blood pressure step by step. Once they finished demonstrating the procedure of blood pressure measurement, I was allowed to do with my friend and was given the time of 20 minutes. Similarly, along with BP measurement, I was also supposed to record those findings in the clinical chart.
During the procedure, I was assessed by my tutor to see whether I was doing it correctly or not and to guide me in my mistake. After the procedure, I explained findings to my friend and also recorded in the clinical chart. By doing this I was able to meet the standard 4 (Comprehensively conducts assessments) of Registered nurse standards for practice (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016).Feelings:Prior to the practical class of blood pressure, I was nervous and worried about the procedure. I was somehow confident also because I had already done it before in my home country during my diploma in Nursing. Besides that, my anxiety level was increasing as it had been already 2 years of not been doing that procedure. Once the tutor shows the demonstration, I felt relief that it was common that I did before 2 years and was going to perform now. However, I was surprised when I did not find the brachial pulse of my friend which was one of the step-in measuring blood pressure. After my tutor helped me, I felt happy and satisfied with my performance as it went very nicely and smoothly.
Evaluation:
Overall, the blood pressure measurement practical lab was memorable and very helpful for my next OSCE assignment.
According to my tutor, I was able to demonstrate the procedure nicely within 10 mins of time. One of the good experiences for me as I did the procedure by following the guidelines of the Australian Nursing Standards Assessment Tools (ANSAT) called comprehensively conducts assessments. Following the guidelines during the procedure made me confident and lower my anxiety level. Besides my good experiences, I also had some bad experiences of poor communication skill. As my friend was Australian, it was hard for her to understand some of my words during the procedure due to my pronunciation error. Apart from that error, I tried my best to perform my skills and also tried to make a strong interpersonal relationship between us. Indeed, I was not able to listen to the Korotkoff sound at my first attempt because I released the valve quickly which made me quite upset. But after repeating the procedure again with the consent of my friend I somehow managed to listen systolic and diastolic sound. From this, I knew that I have to release the valve slowly to hear the sound accurately After the procedure, I replace the articles that I used where I forget to clean the earplugs of the stethoscope. Suddenly I realized that and clean the earplugs and also did hand washing to prevent contamination. I also evaluate that I am not more confident in recording the data in the clinical chart so I promised myself to practice more further.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I felt more confident than before in communicating with the people. The practical lab of blood pressure helped me in exploring my theory knowledge and gained practical experiences. Moreover, that practical class also helped me to identify my mistake and taught me to improve my mistake in further class. Similarly, this will also help me in real hospital practical during my placement in the second semester. All the thing that I learned in a practical class will be my guidelines in my placement and will make me more confident. Lastly, having practical class prior to the placement makes all the students confident, skilled and trustworthy regarding the skilled assessment.Action plan:In order to measure blood pressure timely and effectively in the future, I will practice more in my family members and friends. From my practical class, I also learned that during blood pressure measurement the valve should be turned on slowly. So, in the future, I will keep in my mind regarding the turn on and off of valve and about the cuff release. I will also document correctly in the clinical chart and will also consider the environment while measuring blood pressure.To conclude, I wrote a reflection regarding my first day of the practical lab of blood pressure measurement. Throughout my reflection, I used Gibbs reflective cycle which helped me analyze my feeling and also allowed me to discover my feeling regarding blood pressure measurement. At last this reflection writing helps me to upgrade my knowledge regarding the Gibbs reflective cycle and also makes me more confident in writing a reflection.