This assignment will reflect on and critically analyse my personal and professional development in the domain of care management over the last three years. It will additionally outline how I plan to continue to develop in this domain once I have qualified as a registered nurse. My development so far will be analysed from the perspective of the skills, knowledge and values required of a registered nurse. Through this reflection I hope to confirm that my practice meets the standards for entry onto the nursing register as outlined by the nursing and midwifery council ((NMC) 2008).
Due to the nature of this assignment and for the purpose of reflection, as supported by Fulbrook (2003), I will adopt a narrative approach that conveys thoughts,
Kenworthy et al (2001) state the majority of student nurses become nervous at the prospect of caring for an unconscious patient. My mentor and I made a plan to start with the basics and put theory behind the actions so that I would understand evidence based practice behind caring for an unconscious patient. Irani (2001) states evidence-based practice is essential to ensure the effective and efficient management of patients. In addition my mentor used both cognitive and behaviour modelling, which is promoted as good teaching methods by Ziegler (2005), to give me confidence in breaking out of the rule governed behaviour and allow me to start making care management decisions. Benner (1984) explains that advanced beginners start to show situational perception and by the end of this six week placement I was able to efficiently manage an unconscious patients’ airway care, including administering oxygen and deciding when to wean the oxygen whilst maintaining oxygen saturation levels. I would analyse my practice using Rolfe et al (2001) reflective model part ‘so what’, by stating that I was unable to prioritise efficiently and although I had started to show situational perception, I still treated all aspects of care management with equal importance. I was unable to distinguish whether monitoring vital signs was more important than airway management due