To make ‘meaning’ means to make sense of an experience and make

To make ‘meaning’ means to make sense of an experience and make an interpretation of it. When we subsequently use this interpretation to guide decision-making or action, then making ‘meaning’ becomes ‘learning’.(Jack M.1990). This is the summary of my understanding of reflection and what this piece of essay will try to look at.The model I have chosen is Driscoll’s What? Model. The reason why I chose this model is because of its layout of three simple questions – what?, So what?, now what? These added prompt questions give a deeper and meaningful reflective process by motivating a more in depth analysis that will leads to the formulation of an action plan for the future.The purpose of this essay is to reflect on my journey on my chosen skill (wound management) in the advance role related skill module. I am presently working with an NHS Trust in the community unit as a Trainee Advance Nursing Assistant. Our unit cares for patient at their end of life (palliative care).At the beginning of the third semester when we were told about the advance role related moodle, that we need to negotiate with our manager on which skill to choose. This came to me as a mixed feelings, First of all my way of learning which I am used too, does not tally with this way of learning academically. What I am used to is to get a lecture, read for exam, sit for exam and pass, but this is a totally different. Then I remembered 1st year 2nd semester, the core skill module were very similar but this moodle will be more details and advanced as the name says, bearing in mind what I went thru with the core skill module, how I struggled with my mentors/.co mentor alike to get my paper signed off, lack of support from colleagues and superior and couple with my social life that the study life has already affected, I knew it is not going to be an easy journey Secondly negotiating my way around things particularly for the academy purpose, I have not attempted this before and this makes me to be more apprehensive. How will I go about this? Who do I get involves? Who and where would I seek for help? These and so many questions were going thru my mind.Negotiation is a form of resolution in which two or more parties needs to reach an agreement either in their differences, decisions making or achieving goals. And this is done by holding a talk on one on one basis or schedules a meeting in resolving the issues.In order for me to accomplish a desirable outcome, I did a research on negotiation and found out that it will be more result oriented for me to follow a structured approach and stages of negotiation which are outline below.Preparation-During one of my long day shift, I went to my manager and I asked if she can arrange a meeting with me so as to discussed my progress at the university and to see how she can support me for this second year. She agreed to meet up with me next day at lunch time. Having a date and a time, I started gathering all the information I needed to negotiate the skill I would prefer, jotting them down so that I will not forget and on the set date I took along my Individual Learning Plan (ILP) so that she can sign them after we agree on a skill.Discussion- I started by thanking her for her support for last year and I told her what is require of us in year two which is our final year. We are to choose a clinical skill in which we have to learn everything possible both theory and practical on it. She suggested various skill I can pick from such as diabetics, palliatives care, pain management and wound management. I told her since I did a little bit of wound care in my first year I would like further develop my skill in wound managementClarification of goals- I made her aware of what I would like to achieve at the end of the moodle are:• Practical skill on wound care• The evidence behind practice• Theoretical aspect of wound management.Negotiate towards a Win-Win outcome- My manager in turns promised to support me by:• sending me on wound management training, • I will be able to work with experienced staff nurse or mentor• Send me to other unit for more practical experienceThou she made me to be aware of the challenging she will be facing in giving me full support as the Trust did not treat us the same way as that of student nurse. We were counted as part the number to work on the floor and as the way our unit runs it will be more challenging for her to pull me away from my partner so as to have more practical skill needed on wound management but she promised to give her full support.Agreement- My manager then put all what we agreed in my ILP and we both signed and i was really happy with the outcome of my of negotiationImplementation of a course of action-This is where all hell break loose, all what we agreed was not implemented, I manage to book myself on wound management course, the only mentor that was managing four us(Trainee) got sick and no one to replace her and we were without mentor for months. Seeing that the practical aspect of our skill is suffering, we held a meeting within ourselves (Trainee) and concluded that we need to involve the community head of nursing.The deputy head of nursing community tried his best and sent me out to foot clinic where I learnt about foot ulcer, diagnosis and treatment.Managing my time is crucial in achieving my objective in order to meet up with the submission. Time Management refers to controlling time effectively so that the right time is allocated to the right activity as per their importance. Time Management includes:• Effective Planning • Setting goals and objectives • Setting deadlines • Prioritizing activities as per their importance • Spending the right time on the right activity I am a last minute person and I knew this will not work in this situation. I need to have a proper plan on how to achieve my goals and objectives but there were a lot of factors that were imitating against using my time well as planned. For instance I didn’t have a mentor until second semester of the second year. On Monday of self directed study, I would have planned to gain practical skill on wound care but there will be no one to shadow either because the nurses are newly qualify and are not confident or the ones that have experience has already got a student nurse for the day and she cannot manage with an extra trainee.Also joggling between so many activities and commitment such as family, work, school, religion commitment and my social life was quite strenuous and have negative impact on my time management.And this bring me to how I self managed and was able to achieved my objectives within the limitation encountered and the time limit.Time management means taking responsibility for your own actions, is about making a choice to do more than you need to, and it is a great skill to build for life and work. Self management skills include:Initiative-Since I knew there are little to no support in gaining practical experience due to non availability of mentor, I had to took my initiative to voluntaire to do assessed and manage wound for patient under trained nurse supervision and this was managened with my normal case load for the day.Organisation-This is organising my time and commitment well. I had to cut on my social engagement and I also cut on working extra hours to support my family and my family were so supportive and encouraging in this aspectAccountability-I knew the responsibility rest on me to achieve my stated objectives, I can’t hold the system or anybody accountable if I fail, I am accountable for my own work, successes or failure. This is what motivated me to put in all my effort to achieve my objectives.Now I am able to achieve my objectives despite all odds. My negotiation skill such as communication, listening, problem solving, rapport building and assertiveness is stronger and I am more confident in having my objective heard because I had to renegotiate my way of achieving my them over and over again, My time management is good than what it was before but I still need to work hard to improve more. This course in general has really taught me a good lesson on how to self manage and the importance of it to the organisation. And my unit need to find way round how to manage and support trainee staff thou we were not student nurses but we need a good support just as student nurse.