Post Conference Reflection

Every Thursday afternoon at 3pm I can be found in the hallway of a med surge unit on the third floor at a Brooklyn Hospital for clinicals. We end off each day at post conference with our clinical instructor. Post conference is intended to discuss nursing care challenges of interest for the benefit of all the students in the conference group and to share ideas for meeting these challenges. Our clinical instructor facilitates the post conference discussion. Each student is expected to participate in evaluating the day’s goals and learning experiences. After post conference we make our way into the elevator as a group to head home. As our group stepped into the elevator with our instructor a physician walked in behind us, the doors closed and we …show more content…
She had directly put one of her patients in danger by allowing him to wonder off on his own. She had no way of knowing if he would have walked right outside the front doors. I did consider for a moment that perhaps the nurse was aware of the patients situation and she felt the patient was capable of such an endeavor. I would like to think that at least. Putting myself in the patients shoes I don 't think I would have been disturbed. He looked quite content and happy to be getting a snack. He didn 't feel any threat or danger to himself. As far as he was concerned he was free to do as he wished. I would have felt just as he did. Happy and free to leave the floor. I could imagine feeling extremely cooped up on the same hospital floor for days on end. As far as the patient was concerned he was doing nothing wrong. He had obtained permission from the only person keeping him from leaving the unit. Ethical principles to this story include the nurses judgement, her experience and expertise. Was she capable of making such a decision? The nurse is supposed to incorporate critical thinking skills when using the nursing process, she/he is responsible for assessing