THE 5R’S OF REFLECTION 1 Essay Example

The 5R’s of Reflection

University Affiliation

Application of systematic method is essential for thinking through a situation which involves moving from reflective stimuli to a significant reflection. Use of a structure that triggers profound and meaningful thinking is a good way to discover and understand the situation at hand. The method will improve memory quality as well as personal experience needed in future professional life and solving complicated issues. Also the process aids in framing a problem before solving it. More so, individuals can reason about the behaviors and the attitudes based on the scenario they come across, and after comprehending the situation, they review various ways of solving them. This paper seeks to help the interviewer to understand the ability and knowledge of the graduate based on their reflective use of 5R’s in handling a patient who complains of pain.

Application of 5R’s reflection

Reporting

When I was working on an operation ward, I observed the patient reactions as she entered the office, asked her name, age, status and problem encountered after sitting. The answers provided were to help in identifying the patient appropriately and figuring out if her marital status was the factor contributing to the challenge (Needham, et al., 2005). She complained about regular head pain in the left side of the face followed by dizziness, sleeplessness, fever, vomiting, and weakness. Asking her about the causal effect of the current pain helped in realizing that the situation was dangerous and hence needed attention. The symptoms showed that the patient had was in a critical condition.

Responding

Having paid attention to all her complaints, I sympathized with her and thanked her for the quick response she took. Based on her current facial expression and regular placement of a hand on the forehead showed she was experiencing a great pain and I felt the urge to assist her as much as I could. I asked her the period during which she experienced the pain and the medication she was taking before deciding to seek further medical attention.

Pain killers obtained from a nearby chemist helped in cooling the case after two days, but after a week, the other symptoms appeared and worsened the condition. The drug used gave a leak that the medicine she took was the cause of the additional side effects, and preferably it was better if she had come earlier to seek the medication from the doctor (Subramanian, et al., 2012). She appreciated my concern and thanked me for the willingness to help her in any way and promised to take precaution in future.

Relating

My role, in this case, was to listen carefully to the patient’s complaints, to identify the cause of pain based on the analysis of the symptoms and to offer possible solutions resulting from the outcome. Lab tests such as blood test, pressure rate as well as pulse rate were taken and analyzed systematically to determine if they were also affected. The results showed that there were traces of the drug used earlier despite the pulse rate being normal. According to McBrien, (2007) the lab test provided an understanding of the patient’s physiological status and that the painkillers had a side effect on the normal body functioning of the patient.

Reasoning

Head pain originate from the tissues and organelles that enclose the skull or the brain which have no nerve. Periosteum covers bones, muscles of the head, the eyes and the ears and other tissues of the brain and the spinal cord, veins, arteries and nerve fibers. All these structures can become irritated and result to head ache that may be in the form of a throb, dull ache, sharp, mild, intense or constant pain (Smith & Jack, 2005). The different types of head pain make it difficult to treat and that the reason for categorizing it to allow better and effective treatment options.

The major types of head ache classified in term of pain source which includes; primary head ache, secondary as well as facial and cranial pain. Therefore, the patient suffered from the second type associated with the wrong prescription of medicated substance that resulted in the pain she was undergoing.

Reconstruction

After giving a vivid description of epidemiological condition to the doctor, he suggested that she stopped using the previous medicine immediately and recommended another one. Solving the pain issue ultimately, the patient withdrew from the former drug as told and used the prescribed one till the dose complete, then report back to the hospital and provide feedback concerning her health. In conclusion, theoretical aspect learned helped in acting to similar pain challenges in future more efficiently and also attending to such patients better as it is the goals of the medical centers. The application of the learned skills and knowledge will improve the health centers as well medical records of the patient. Moreover, we can say that caring is a way of nursing, yes, indeed it is true because patients get the best care when an illness occurs.

References

McBrien, B. (2007). Learning from practice–reflections on a critical incident, Accident, and Emergency Nursing, 15(3), 128-133.

Needham, I., Abderhalden, C., Halfens, R. J., Fischer, J. E., & Dassen, T. (2005). Non‐somatic effects of patient aggression on nurses: a systematic review. Journal of advanced nursing, 49(3), 283-296.

Smith, A., & Jack, K. (2005). Reflective practice: an essential task for students. Nursing Standard, 19(26), 33-37.

Subramanian, P., Allcock, N., James, V., & Lathlean, J. (2012). Challenges faced by nurses in managing pain in a critical care setting. Journal of clinical nursing, 21(9‐10), 1254-1262.