CIHW 6
Decolonization through the journey of reflection
Throughout the phases of my learning experiences and activities, Gibb’s cycle has encouraged me to think systematically and focus on all the positive areas in my nursing profession and those that require improvement. Reflecting on my study in decolonization and nursing placement experience, the following reflective practice focuses on my study in different yarning activities that I engaged in during my class, which are watching a “Babakiueira movie”, a puker card game and an interesting simulation of me and my classmates attending to an aboriginal patient. Most importantly, the reflective movie presents the values and beliefs concerning the Aboriginal and Torres Islanders in Australia (Coolen, 2012). Such challenges can be identified and be rectified through the Gibbs model of reflection that is a six-step process to describe and analyse the underlying reasons (Aithal et al., 2015). This essay will utilize Gibbs` Model of Reflection to evaluate the nursing experience of an Aboriginal patient.
Task One
By far, I was excited about the reflective practice lesson since it prepared me to meet the workplace uncertainty and gain the courage to work ethically and competently in the midst of potential chaos during my nursing practice. Indeed, I was curious about the diverse group of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, especially whether they were a group from various location and languages and their traditional practices as per their culture (Bassot, 2016). Basically, I had a preconceived myth regarding violence against children and women. In this light, the sexual and physical violence against children and women was not a portion of their traditional cultural practices. In reality, I realized that most non-Aboriginal children are the most sexually abused as compared to the Aboriginal children. I believe the reflective practice is the first step towards gaining new insights into the nursing practice and creating a self-awareness of reacting to practice situations (Finlay, 2008). As part of a life-long lesson, I perceived a broad range of areas that I aspire to improve and learn concerning the Aboriginal and Torres Islanders culture and challenges that nurses face in their course of duty.
Beyond the areas of agreement and misunderstandings, my focus before engaging on the yearning activities was how to tackle various tasks using the Gibbs model and arrive at a reasonable conclusion. My preconceived ideas included the processes involved during the description of the yarning activities, expressing feelings, evaluation of the activities from experience, the analysis processes and development of an action plan from my conclusions (Gibbs, 1988). I particularly, had to go through the reflection of what happened, how I felt and my thoughts, evaluate whether the experience was good or bad, analyze the sense out of the activities and make conclusions. Most importantly, my belief in conducting a reflective analysis was how I could possibly start with an action plan in various situations encountered and use the Gibbs cycle to chart my continuing development and learning process.
I looked forward to discussions concerning the contextual historical factors that have a great impact on the emotional, social wellbeing, mental health and treatment of the community. In a concise manner, I looked forward to a learning process where I could get a glimpse of my expected principles of codes applicable to nursing practice in different contexts. In this light, I understand the necessary nursing skills that I require whether it is clinical or non-clinical practice (Code of conduct for nurses and (Code of conduct for midwives, 2018).
Impact of the subject on my future Nursing
Through my amazing learning, my practice has changed especially in decision making and offering safe and quality nursing within the evidence-based and person-centered practice. I have significantly acquired the graduate attributes applicable to nursing. That is professional identity, patient-centered care, professional competence, communication and collaboration, indigenous proficiency, knowledge utilization and translation. The UTS graduate attributes will positively influence my practice while handling patients, like Judy, by ensuring I avoid any misconceptions about a patient’s cultural background and beliefs. My experience plays an important point in my understanding of future engagement in person-centered care, which will be sensitive to the needs of families and other individuals from different backgrounds. I am particularly enlightened on such positive attributes as effective collaboration, proper communication and respect to culturally diverse groups such as the “Babakiueria” Aboriginal group (University of Technology, 2018).
Additionally, the outcome of my experiences with my classmates plays a role in my future engagement as a future registered nurse on effective communication, respect to dignity, cultures, beliefs values and rights of a community such as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Through a collaborative approach, the REM framework will guide me in my future response to the Australian Indigenous and non-indigenous population as a cultural competent learner in my field. In other words, the reflection experiences played a significant role in my future as a nurse in development of principles of Respect, Engagement as well as sharing and Moving forward (REM) (Power et al., 2016). By applying the qualities and principles of REM, I believe I am well equipped to portray indigenous cultural competence possibly in practice and daily life activities.
Lastly, as a result of my experience, I acknowledge the future need for cultural safety of the social, structural and social factors that may impact the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Because of this, I find the need to offer care that support for the needs of the Aboriginal’s community.
Foremost, my movie experience was a process of having a meaningful engagement to understand various changes to traditional expressions of culture, the developments of information management, especially between the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia. The movie of the Babakiueria reflects the outcome of the initial contact between black colonizers and the white natives, which is simply a demonstration of a patronizing attitude and cultural competence (McGloin, 2015). I felt the urge to offer quality treatment and care to different patients in hospitals regardless of their background after watching it. Reflecting on the Babakiueria, my evaluation of this video determined that Australia is one of the most diversified nations and are most likely to experience poorer pain management or incorrect treatment due to misunderstanding. I particularly learned a lot from Babakiueria and my action plan would be holding other people with higher regards as a guide that will facilitate my decision-making style effective and enhance quality care to the patients (Jha et al., 2015).
My next yarning activity was the puker card game, which was an interactive game that involved other members to read the rules and explain their understanding of the rules after game finish. Notably, everyone had a different understanding of the game based on his or her culture and the rules (Mesman & Sagi-Schwarz, 2016). During the time, I was interesting that we had cultural differences on the rules of the “puker card”. Through the REM framework, evaluation methodology will be much helpful for secured mechanisms of the current and future policies in various contexts. This game shows the importance of multi-cultural and thinking. According to the AHPRA National standard for RNs, it is also appropriate to apply varied thinking strategies for decision-making and for safe and quality evidence-based treatment (Code of conduct for nurses and Code of conduct for midwives, 2018).
Finally, my last experience was a simulation that I acted in as an RN. In the scenario, I visited a patient named Judy, a 57-year-old aboriginal woman suffers from type 2 diabetes and is discharged at home with a leg ulcer for daily dressings (UTS 2018). The patient has two siblings that often assist her when they can since they live close. As part of the simulation experience, I sat one day on the opposite side with the patient and his siblings. I crossed subconsciously the legs that seems unaccepted because it appeared as if I was not ready to listen and impolite to her. Although, I started with interaction with the patient being biased, I felt remorse for the woman as we interacted and I understood her experience. I considered my attitude towards the Aboriginal woman to be the wrong experience.
Primarily, the miscommunication and misunderstanding with the leg ulcer patient is one area that portrayed the need for undertaking a cultural assessment. According to Kagawa-Singer & Backhall (2001), the ABCD model can be used to evaluate attitudes, beliefs, contexts, and decision-making styles. The model can boost one`s knowledge and understand of a patient and avoid bias and assumptions that can affect the effectiveness of a nursing care (Cameron et al., 2014). I should have consulted my supervisor with about the biases and assumptions towards the Aboriginal people. Second, I should have prepared for the visit by researching the REM framework, the ABCD cultural assessment model, including other theories that could have helped expand my knowledge on handling the indigenous people (UTS Health GAP Nursing, 2015). I believe I should have revised and researched on these topics because I knew I had some assumptions. It should have been clear to me that the assumptions would have affected my experience and delivery of care. I, therefore, recognize that I failed in this area, and must improve on my approach in the future (UTSHealth, 2016). I also implemented the attribute that emphasizes professional disposition, personal cantered care, effective communication, and professional competence, among others (UTS health GAP Nursing, 2015)). I now feel confident that I can tackle a similar situation more effectively by ensuring that I understand the patients.
Conclusion
As reflected on my paper, the reflective practice was a defining moment for my future success as a nurse. The Yearning activities are indeed parts of my learning process in different areas of my future nursing career. In this view, the Babakiueria, the puker game and the simulation practice are necessary for my growth as a future nurse. I had assumptions and biases towards the Aboriginal people which affected the way I communicated with the patient. However, the Gibbs model revealed that the problem could have been avoided if I had implemented the ABCD cultural assessment model and the FEM framework of communicating with the patient. A further reflection into the experience revealed that I learned a valuable lesson that can help me shape my future nursing plans when dealing with the Aboriginals and the Torres Straight Islanders.
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