Written Inquiry / Reflection
Task description :This task will require you to reflect upon and analyse a written or video-based healthcare scenario from an ethico-legal perspective, using Driscoll’s reflective model as a guide. It is expected that you will draw upon the unit content, personal experiences and relevant literature and learning resources to inform your reflection and analysis.
Task length :1500 words
Assessment criteria:
- Demonstrates familiarity with key concepts of ethical practice (covered in the unit) pertaining to the chosen situation;
- Demonstrates an understanding of the ethico-legal complexities inherent in the situation, and considers the implications of different courses of action;
- Shows evidence of developing ethical awareness and how self-reflection may inform your practice and relationships with others;
- Writes clearly and succinctly using Driscoll’s model (written in the first-person), with correct grammar, ethico-legal terminology and referencing (Harvard style);
- Integrates relevant literature and resources to support and justify key ideas and observations.
Case Study
Assessment Task 3 – Scenario 1
You are an undergraduate nursing student at a large university and have just
started your PEP in a busy urban hospital. In your practice units (your units that
give you the practical skills you will need on PEP) your lecturer and tutor have
stressed the importance of managing sharps (needles, cannulas and the like)
correctly. Your tutor has told you on a number of occasions that after giving an
injection, you should never re-cap the needle – instead, you should place it in a
kidney dish and dispose of it directly from the dish into a designated sharps
container.
Your tutor has directed students to one of the Australian Government’s
website on the handling of sharps and when you check out the website, you
can see that one of the recommendations is that ‘needles must not be
recapped, bent or broken after use’.
While you are on your placement the registered nurse (RN) you are paired with
asks you to give one of the patients his insulin injection. You are a bit nervous
as this nurse can be quite critical if you don’t do things her way. You give the
patient his injection and immediately realise you haven’t brought a kidney dish
to the bedside. You start to panic a bit as you don’t know where the closest
sharps container is.
The RN sees you awkwardly holding the needle and instructs you to re-cap it.
You refuse, as you know that recapping needles increases the likelihood of a
needle-stick injury, which can potentially transfer serious blood-borne
diseases. Again, the RN instructs you to re-cap the needle, but you stand your
ground once more. The RN then screams at you to re-cap the needle. Anxious
and distressed, you begin to place the cap on the needle, but are shaking so
much that the needle accidently punctures the skin on your left thumb. Clearly
exasperated, the RN turns to the patient and states: ‘we’ll now need to take a
sample of your blood to see what rare diseases this imbecile may have
contracted!’
