University:
West Coast University
Course:
NURS 122 | Introduction to Medical Surgical Nursing
Academic year:

2022
Views:

472

Pages:

2
Author:

Dania Lynch

Week 3 Clinical Self-Reflection This week, I took care of numerous patients with a variety of conditions, such as a patient with a chronic sacral wound with constipation, a patient with a recent stroke, a patient with weakness, and a patient with dehydration. During my time on this floor, I was able to work closely with the nurse in all of her processes, from documenting, charting, providing patient care, as well as being alongside her as she assisted in doing other nurse’s medications while they were moving patients from the ED to this floor and assisting in downgrading a patient to the ICU that was septic. While observing her and working with her, I was able to see even further the collaborative effort that is working on a medical-surgical unit. This day consisted of helping other nurses, as well as ensuring that patients call lights were answered and that I was there if they were out of their bed or chair and they were a fall risk. I assisted in passing medications and watching the process of downgrading patients and all that goes into the communication and planning, in order to provide the quality of care that the patient needed to best serve those in need of care. Upon working with this nurse, I was able to see the wound-care nurse’s role better, as they worked closely with the patient that I did my care plan on this week. These nurses were very detailed in their documentation, as well as providing photographs in the patient’s MAR so that their wound was closely monitored in its various stages of treatment. The patient has had this chronic sacral wound for years, however, it recently had opened up prior to the beginning of the patient’s hospital stay. By the date of my clinical day, the wound was no longer open and the patient was experiencing less pain and discomfort and was at less risk of a more serious infection than prior to being admitted. In a matter of several days, this chronic wound went from being open and showing internal tissue of the sacral area to being closed and better managed, all with the help of the wound-care team and working closely with the nurse and tech’s that were consistently with and caring for the patient. Today, I had a much closer in-depth look at the collaborative effort of working in a hospital, but I also saw the benefits of a collaborative care team, as a chronic issue became less painful in a matter of days! I took a lot from this experience, and I am hopeful to see more of what consults my patients will encounter and the results of these specialized interventions and efforts.