I have started to use selfreflection to look back to this first

I have started to use self-reflection to look back to this first difficult experience and the feelings of stress with trying to manage a volatile patient has shown me the importance of self-reflection, clinical supervision and having the acceleration of knowledge and learning while been guided by an experienced nurse (Finlay, 2008).By incorporating and using the reflection model of Gibbs, I was able to identify areas in my professional practice that I felt were critical incidents (Gibbs, 1988).Gibbs model of reflection1. Description: what happened Verbally threatened with violence by an unwell patient nursed in IPC.2. Feelings: what were you thinking about? Feelings of stigma and stereotypes regarding mental health patients as crazy and deranged. I felt threatened and scared and had no confidence in being able to deal with these situations.3. Evaluation: what was good or bad about the experience? I found my own negative feelings towards mental health patients needed more self-reflection. During the event their where no good feelings, only feeling overwhelmed and scared. Looking back on it and other similar situations, the feeling of fear has slowly started to diminish due to being able to access feedback and guidance from my clinical supervisor. 4. Analysis: what sense can you make of the situation? I found it hard to remember the negative aspects of stigma I had been taught and putting it into practice on a practical level. I can see the critical importance of having experienced staff to guide me thru putting together the theory learnt at school together with the practical use in my practice. 5. Conclusion: what else could you have done? What I have learnt for the future is that further education, self-reflection and clinical supervision is critical to having competent mentally healthy nurses.6. Action Plan: what will you do next time? If the similar situation arises again or another situation, I will trust in the process and my own reflective experience to confidently work through difficult situations.Reflection is a way of interpreting ones thinking, actions, events and memories to learn from and to make improvements where needed (Gibbs, 1988). Reflection uses a greater knowledge and understanding which emphasises the connection between theory and practice, this process helps nurses cope with critical events and incidents (Gibbs, 1988). A big change in my attitude was watching clients being admitted initially presenting as mentally unstable and then watching their mental state change from negative to positive. Through effective nursing procedures, clinical supervision, establishing rapport with tangata