Negative Experience during Manual Handling
During the month of my clinical placements, I had the opportunity of going through many positive experiences that had helped in enhancing my skills and had helped me in enhancing my knowledge. However, I had also gone through many negative experiences that had given me the scope to understand the skills and knowledge I lack in different aspects of nursing. One of such negative incident that I went through was during the times of manual handling. I was working during the night shift when there were very few healthcare professionals who had to serve the huge number of patients admitted to the medical surgical ward. My immediate senior asked me to help a patient clear his urine and then give his pills before allowing him to sleep. I had not undertaken any manual handling tasks before but I could not say anything to her out of fear. After attending the patient, I noticed that he was quite old will mobility issues and had been suffering from osteoarthritis. He was obese and had gone several falls that had resulted in bruises all over his body. I tried to pick him up from the bed and asked him to put his hand around my shoulder. The patient did not understand what he needs to do and was trying to hold different objects in the room like tables, chairs and many others. While handling the patient and helping him to walk, I realized that I am not being able to take his weight anymore and his fidgety nature and confusion resulted in a uncertain situation where we both feel on the floor. He got wounds in different parts of his body and I was hurt as well. However, the senior nurse criticized me and this affected me immensely.
From the entire incidence, I became quite shocked and tensed. I was shocked because I could never imagine that my care service could lead to suffering of the patient. Therefore, I felt quite upset and disappointed after the entire incident and my self-esteem was entirely broken. I felt guilty of providing wrong intervention to the patient that resulted in more suffering and pain for the patients. Patients admit to hospitals to get safe and quality care from professionals who help them to recover and come back to normal quality life (Singh & Sittig, 2015). I was feeling low because I could not provide quality and safe care to the patient and could not fulfill my responsibility. I realized that I was not competent with my nursing skills and knowledge and I needed more training before manual handling.
Consequences of Ineffective Manual Handling
Ineffective manual handling mainly results in the huge number of negative consequences for the patients as well as the nursing professionals (Hignett et al., 2016). It results in various types of accidents that often contribute in additional suffering of the patient besides the already present disorder that is giving the patients hard time (Kneafsey et al., 2015). Often various accidents that the patients might face can result in deterioration of their condition that might make them live poor quality life with huge amount of suffering (Risor et al., 2017). The bad part of the incident was that the patient in the case study was already suffering from osteoarthritis and had already fell down a number of times and as a professional, it was my duty to ensure safe environment and care so that he does not have to go through such experiences again. However, I had failed immensely in the service. The good part of the incident was that it helped me realize that i need more knowledge and skills in effective handling of the patients in a safe and secured manner so that such accidents do not take place in the future.
Manual handling can be defined as the transporting as well as the supporting of the loads by hand as well as different parts of the body. Often nurses require to manually handle patients during transportation and shifting them from one place to another, to take them to washrooms, during the times of bathing and cleaning them, during transferring them to wheelchairs during walks and many others (Fray et al., 2015). It is extremely important for the professionals to develop skills and knowledge that are important for the nurses to consider while moving and handing patients. One of the most important aspect that nurses need to consider is to assess the risk factors that are associated with the tasks. The weight of the patient, the capability and level of mobility of the patient, the effect of the disorders on their health and abilities, the health literacy of the patients and many others need to be taken into consideration before manual handling of the patient (Lapane et al., 2016). This would prevent chances of accidents of the patients. One important aspect is that nurses need to communicate effectively with the patients about the procedures of manual handling that they are going to apply helping the patients to understand their roles and the actions that they would need to take when the nurses are handling them (Villaroya et al., 2016). While handling the patient in the case study, I neither took the risk assessments nor communicated with him the ways I would apply to ensure safe handling. Therefore, the patient is seen to become confused mid way and I was also not able to assess the risk like his body weight and his inability o walk due to mobility issues. Therefore, the accident had taken place. Non-maleficence is the bioethical principle that states professionals to not undertake any practices that cause suffering (Coman et al., 2018). Poor manual handling of the patient had caused such accidents and breach of the bioethical principle (Varcin et al., 2015). This had the chances of making patients depressed and losing their confident and trust from the nurses. The patient was seen to be upset and this affected the therapeutic relationship.
Importance of Assessment and Communication in Manual Handling
Conclusion:
In my future endeavors, manual handling of patients would make up one of the most important actions of my daily schedules and practices and therefore, I would need myself to develop the best skills and knowledge to ensure that I handle patients following the protocols like Safe patient handling by ANMF. I would also maintain the rules and guidelines so that the chances of making mistakes would also become less. Moreover, I have realized from this instance that I have not gained proper knowledge in this domain and therefore, I would need to work on this skill. This would help me to handle patients ensuring that they are transported effectively without any risks for falls..
I would first discuss the issue with my mentor and accordingly take initiatives suggested by her. I would also join a training workshop that would be based on developing the skills of and knowledge of manual handling of the patients. Moreover, I would also ask for a list of books from my mentor that would help me in developing this non-pharmacological knowledge. Moreover, I would also undertake evidence based knowledge that would help me gather information and develop my knowledge on proper methods of manual handling. Moreover, I will also attend seminars on this topic to understand the viewpoints of stalwart professionals. All these would not only help me develop my skills and knowledge in safe medication but would also help me to gain back my confidence that I had lost after the incidence.
References:
Coman, R. L., Caponecchia, C., & McIntosh, A. S. (2018). Manual Handling in Aged Care: Impact of Environment-related Interventions on Mobility. Safety and Health at Work.
Fray, M., Hallstrom, K., Knibbe, H., Celona, J., & Matz, M. (2015). Developing a worldwide method for cost benefit analysis for safe patient handling interventions, to be completed by safe patient handling practitioners. A pilot study.
Hignett, S., Otter, M. E., & Keen, C. (2016). Safety risks associated with physical interactions between patients and caregivers during treatment and care delivery in Home Care settings: A systematic review. International journal of nursing studies, 59, 1-14.
Kneafsey, R., Clifford, C., & Greenfield, S. (2015). Perceptions of hospital manual handling policy and impact on nursing team involvement in promoting patients’ mobility. Journal of clinical nursing, 24(1-2), 289-299.
Lapane, K., Dube, C., & Desdale, B. (2016). Worker injuries in nursing homes: Is safe patient handling legislation the solution. The Journal of Nursing Home Research Sciences, 2, 110-117.
Risør, B. W., Casper, S. D., Andersen, L. L., & Sørensen, J. (2017). A multi-component patient-handling intervention improves attitudes and behaviors for safe patient handling and reduces aggression experienced by nursing staff: A controlled before-after study. Applied ergonomics, 60, 74-82.
Varcin, L., Claus, A., Van Den Hoorn, W., & Hodges, P. (2015). Manual handling: differences in perceived effort, success rate and kinematics between three different pushing techniques. Ergonomics, 58(2), 268-277.
Villarroya, A., Arezes, P., Díaz-Freijo, S., & Fraga, F. (2016). Comparison between five risk assessment methods of patient handling. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 52, 100-108.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
