Topic > Using the Jewish Home for the Aged to Assess the Gibbs Cycle

For my first clinical experience, for approximately six hours I worked with my peers at the Jewish Home for the Aged. Using the Gibbs cycle I describe my clinical experience, talk about my feelings before, during and after the clinic, evaluate, analyze and finally conclude on my clinical experience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Working at the Jewish Home for the Elderly for my clinical internship, the patients I encountered were elderly and mostly had some sort of physical or mental disability. The nursing home itself had a building layout much like that of a hospital, with a central nursing station, ice and water machine, medicine carts, and a giant Patient Bill of Rights poster. According to Mody (2007), aged care homes face different health risks than the typical hospital environment. Although I have visited nursing homes before, entering a nursing home as a student nurse with the intent to truly care for patients made this experience particularly unique. Based on what I had learned in geriatrics and Mody (2007), maintaining adequate infection control was very important in this environment, as older adults are more susceptible to contracting diseases and have fragile skin. The patient I worked with had CVA with left hemiparesis, meaning she was paralyzed on the left side of her body after having a stroke. Typical among older adults, he also had polypharmacy, taking many medications together, both prescription and over-the-counter. Due to her left sided paralysis, I was assigned to assist her with bed bathing, which she needed a lot of help with. He also asked a lot about over-the-counter and prescription medications. My patient, despite her current condition, was still very cooperative and happy to have company, and it made my first clinical experience easier and more enjoyable. Before the experience, I felt very overwhelmed and uncertain about what I would experience at my first clinic. I was excited to use the hands-on skills I learned in the lab, especially taking vital signs. However, even though I am comfortable talking to strangers, I was nervous about remaining calm and professional while performing the necessary skills efficiently and correctly. Despite my initial fears and anxiety as my clinic date approached, once I got started and worked through my clinical period, I felt more comfortable implementing my skills with very cooperative patients. According to Holland (2012) 55% of communication between patient and nurse is non-verbal. Therefore, I attempted to maintain a positive posture, such as standing straight, not crossing my arms, as well as assisting patients to the best of my ability without giving false reassurance or responses, for which I would inform the RN of their needs. The Jewish Home looks more like a hospital environment than the assisted living environment I had seen before, the hospital-like environment made it much easier to find supplies like gloves and towels as well as the nursing station and paperwork. Hand sanitizing stations were easy to find and in every hallway, and there was a giant patient bill of rights poster. After finishing my clinical experience, I left with a more confident and confident mindset about my competence as a student nurse. With advice and constructive criticism from the RN and senior nurse assisting me with the clinic, I was able toimplement my skills and receive feedback. I felt more capable of managing real people when it comes to practical nursing skills and I can't wait to do it again. During clinic visits, I felt I was successful in speaking with patients in a comfortable and professional manner and in maintaining adequate infection control by remembering to sanitize hands when necessary. I was able to find the radial and brachial pulses and was able to measure their pulses. I learned and was able, with my help, to give a bed bath to my patient, who had had a stroke, was paralyzed on the left side and needed a lot of assistance. When taking vital signs, I sometimes forgot to take the patient's breathing rate, during which my partner or the senior nurse would take it in case I forgot. I was so focused on taking vitals correctly that I can't believe I missed one. When I remembered to measure the respiratory rate, I wasn't sure what to do when the patient was very talkative. Toward the end of the clinic, I thought that based on the skills learned and clinical goals, by performing the skills learned, receiving constructive criticism and advice from my peers and nursing staff, and reviewing patients' MARs I was able to take a look at the nursing experience. As I expected before the clinic visit, I took vital checks, learned more about geriatric care, and experienced working with real, real patients with legitimate physical or mental disabilities. The only thing I thought I was missing from this experience was manual blood pressure measurement. In retrospect of my clinical experience, the mistake that I believe was the most erroneous was my failure to record the respiratory rate consistently. Unlike the mute mannequins who remain mute and immobile during the laboratory, patients at the Jewish Home are lively and communicable. Therefore, adapting to taking vital signs of someone who was moving, talking, and breathing was opportunistic, as well as challenging. It was difficult for me to measure respiratory rate because the patients I cared for loved to talk. Since this was the first time I had taken vitals from someone who could respond, I didn't want to tell them to stop talking, out of respect, but I also needed to take an important vital sign. During my clinical experience, things that during my clinical experience included the ability to to find and record the pulse, find the brachial pulse for blood pressure cuff placement and other vital signs. I had attempted to find brachial pulses in the past without as much success, but in my clinic I had more success finding brachial pulses before recording blood pressure. I also believe that my experience giving my patient a bed bath was very successful. Even with her left side completely paralyzed, the patient was still very helpful and cooperative throughout the entire process; and her feeling comfortable washing it made me feel less anxious about cleaning it. Throughout the entire process of rinsing, cleaning, drying, changing adult diapers, dressing and arranging the bed for his comfort, I understood the importance of collaboration and teamwork as defined in the QSEN competencies while assisting my colleagues made the procedure more efficient and the patient more comfortable. I believe I have learned a lot about myself from my clinical experience. I noticed that I was able to remain calm and mature during intimate procedures with the patient, especially bed bathing (I had never seen a.