Reflection On A Critical Incident

Critical Incident Reflection Assignment On my evening shift during April 5, 2016, I was involved in a critical incident involving my assigned patient (D.B.). During this incident, D.B. learned that she was denied privilege to go off unit “for a smoke” due to a conflict that had occurred between herself and another patient on the unit. The result of this altercation led to D.B. expressing feelings of anger towards the staff who denied her privileges and sadness as this was her last day before discharge and was worried her discharge may be compromised due to this event. This combination of feelings led to D.B. secluding herself in her room. I recognized that my patient’s well-being and safety was at risk and immediately attended to her. This …show more content…
I realized that even though I was not able to directly use cathartic skills, I still learned that something as simple as providing my presence to D.B. still played a beneficial role. Also, utilization of active listening skills such as observing D.B.’s nonverbal behaviours and monitoring my own nonverbal behaviours aided in this situation, even though I did not think much of it during the event. While I did not realize it at first, my feelings of self-doubt masked the fact that I did possess skills such as providing presence and active listening when engaging with D.B. This is important because this will only sharpen my techniques in the future and help myself become more aware of what I do in a situation. According to Halter (2014) “nurses must become more aware of their own interpersonal methods, eliminating obstructive, nontherapeutic communication techniques and strategies and developing additional responses that maximize the nurse-patient interactions and increase the use of therapeutic communication skills and strategies” (p.170). Becoming more aware of what I do during interactions with patients allows me to identify which skills are useful to integrate in different patients’ care, as each patient is unique in their own way. In the future, I a different tactic to tackle my self-doubt would be to immediately reflect on the situation after and recognize my strengths. I believe that I undermine my strengths in a situation, instead focusing on what I didn’t do. Halter (2014) recognized that the “psychiatric nurses maximizes his/her communication skills, understanding of human behaviours, and personal strengths to enhance the patient’s growth” (p.150). Recognizing my strengths in a situation along with other factors will aid in my development as a successful psychiatric nurse; therefore I will incorporate