Reflection On Dignity In Nursing

As a nurse dignity is providing each individual with the best possible care despite circumstances, differences in morals, beliefs and cultures. It is preserving personhood and humanity in all situations, acknowledging their values even if they contradict our own. Both Lia’s parents and the doctors had Lia’s best interest in mind they had different view points and approaches in reaching that unanimous goal. Caregivers could have restored dignity to the Lee’s by making them feel respected, that their traditions and culture were valued. Neil and Peggy were even more surprised- and grieved- to learn that the Lees believed that Lia had been taken from them in the first place not to safeguard her health but because the doctors were angry at [them] for being non compliant, and wished to inflict punishment (p.110).

With the continued change and increased complexity of the identity of the nurse it has led to the confusion as to what role nurses play – are they caregivers or clinicians? With the continued evolution of nurses professional identity nurses have moved away from the feminine role of just merely caring and have moved towards taking on more masculine role which have traditionally been associated with power. As traditionally power is mainly associated with masculinity and caring, which is the core value of nursing, as associated with femininity. From this it can be said that nurses have evolved from being the overshadowed caregivers to now taking on roles that traditionally would not be associated with nursing however still keeping the care element. In order to establish exactly how the identity of nurses has evolved over the years and to understand what it is today, we will look at the history of nursing as well as looking at how professional identity is formed and what factors

The evaluation is the final part of my three mandatory written pieces of my graded unit. The final evaluation stage of the graded unit requires me to reflect on how the activity went, whilst highlighting my strengths, areas that require future development and identify my weaknesses, this, in turn, will enable me to adapt my practice to ensure I am continuously supporting patients to the standards set within The Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC). Looking back on the activity, I am proud of myself for being able to plan and follow the activity through to complication. When completing the book with Mr X I found it to be an enjoyable activity that not only offered benefits to Mr X but also to myself, it allowed me to understand the importance of building a therapeutic relationship with a patient. Building a successful therapeutic relationship required me to have good communication and interpersonal skills, (Radcliffe and Ford, 2015), that allowed me to build a relationship with Mr X based on mutual trust and respect.

Demonstrating ‘respect for patients’ values, preferences and expressed needs,’ is one of the eight dimensions of person centred care outlined by the Picker Institute (ref). Morgan and Yoder (2012) described ‘respectful care’ as being an attribute of person centred and while the author does not disagree with this idea of ‘respectful care’ being inherent to person centred care, the author believes that Slater (2006) more accurately describes dignity and respect as being antecedents of person centred care. These antecedents drive respect of personal values, individual needs and decisions, a consequence of which is an improved therapeutic relationship and health outcomes. The author considers this view of dignity, compassion and respect as antecedents

One of the most prevalent ethical issue associated with reflective practice is that of confidentiality, although no names are revealed when reflection takes place, it can be questioned as to whether the interactions we have with patients should be used to help further our professional development (Hargreaves J. 1997). Reflection and reflective practice also have professional implications as it increases the student’s vulnerability as they are recounting events which could have caused them distress in the past as reflection itself is a process which requires the individual to reveal the minute details of how an event made them feel, therefore it is vital that people who are undergoing this process have the support that they require (Cleary M. et. al. 2013). Knight K. et. al (2010) argue that not only do students need this supervision, reflective practice groups should be favoured as they give the students more support, not only from their supervisor but also their peers who could be going through the same

My personal philosophy of nursing seeks to incorporate the art of conveying nursing science holistically with care and human dignity. The four nursing metaparadigm concepts are described in relation to nursing as a science and an art and provide the base upon which my view of nursing and my personal philosophy are derived. As a nursing student at UIC, I am well aware of the fact that the best outcome for any patient may not be improvement in health, but rather, a dignified death during the end of life care. End of life care includes a significant quality in care and human dignity.

The ‘6C’s’ were launched by England’s Chief Officer Jane Cummings who believes that the ‘6C’s’ stand for the commitment of each professional to provide outstanding care for patients, with dignity and compassion while continuing to remain consistent as they achieve excellent health and wellbeing outcomes (RCNI, 2015). The ‘6C’s consist of, care, compassion, competence, communication, courage, and commitment. However for this assignment the focus will lie primarily on courage, an important trait in life and in nursing practice (Dobos, 2015) .It allows us to be brave and do the right thing for the people that we are caring for (RCNI, 2015). Being courageous helps nurses identify poor practise and speak up reinforcing strategies to increase the best standard of care for patients.

Upon reflecting on this experience, I feel like I am more confident in handling the situation should it arise again. Reflecting on it has made me realise that not everything I did was wrong and has helped me to explore what I need to improve on. Reflection is important in the nursing profession as it allows us to think about our actions and talk about how we could have carried them out differently (Johns and Burnie, 2013). Reflection plays a big role in developing the student into a nurse (Barbour,

The following reflection piece is based on an event which I experienced during my internship placement. Johns model of reflection will be used for this assignment. The reflection is based around my own personal experience with a terminally ill patient. It focuses on one main issue, providing hope for patients and how I felt about it. it also discusses my feelings, the knowledge I had, my knowledge gaps and what I learnt through literature during my reflection.

My individual standards and beliefs impact reliably my involvement to work in the health as well as social care background. For my individual input to the care of individuals undergoing significant life occasions, I would give prominence to the circumstance that I still believe to mark a perhaps superior involvement since I have an inadequate knowledge so far. Nonetheless, I have continuously been anxious with the acceptable completion of my proficient responsibilities as well as the operational assistance and help being delivered to individuals suffering challenging and substantial life’ occasions. Moreover, my work in the health and social care environment was a significant affair for me since it added to my professional as well as personal advancement. In this respect, my role encompassed fundamentals of both wellbeing and social care, though I accomplished utilities of a health care professional principally.

The professional values that I have chosen to reflect on is consent. Using Driscoll (2007) model of reflection which is components circle involves three events: what? So what? Now what? A reflection account will focus on my experience of working in the surgical ward.

The Term reflection can have many meanings to many people. Reflection can carry meanings that range from the idea of professionals engaging in solitary introspection to that of engaging in deep meaningful conversations with others. But for this assignment I will focus on; what is refection in the clinical setting, why it is important for health care professionals to reflect and where the ideology of reflection came from. I will also provide a personal experience of reflection during my time in the clinical setting that helped me to come up with a solution to a challenging situation. WHAT IS REFLECTION?

The Gibbs’s reflective cycle comprises of six stages, which are description, feeling, evaluation, analysis of the incident, conclusion and an action plan. I used these stages as a guidance tool during the process of reflective essay about my critical incident (Parsons and White 2008). Nursing in the past was more habituated and ritualistic than rational and precision. Nurses were not encouraged to question their practice let alone reflective practice.

If this dignity is protected and respected it can lead to a better quality of life for the patient which is the main aim of nursing care. Nurses have a professional responsibility to respects patient’s dignity through dignified care. This type of care can be defined as ‘dignity is the backbone of care’, ‘it’s the “little things”’, ‘feeling safe and secure’, ‘treat as you want to be treated’, ‘treat as an individual’ and ‘Dignity

Introduction: The ABCD (Attitude, Behaviour, Compassion and Dialogue) of dignity-conserving care is a fundamental tool for use by healthcare professionals (HPCs) to establish empathy with patients and to uphold human dignity (Chochinov, 2007: 184). These 4 key elements will be discussed with reference to the given scenario. The importance of establishing empathy with patients, and how the ABCD aids this, will be outlined. My own thoughts and self-reflection in response to the scenario will be discussed and the process of becoming a future Integrated Health Professional (IHP) will be considered.