Outpatient Clinic Experience: Reflection on Pediatric Clinic Visit

Reflection on Pediatric Clinic Visit
Institution
Date
Introduction
Reflective writing and journal keeping is an integral part of the learning process or a nursing student. Students are assigned physicians or senior practitioner who act as the advisor or in other cases, and the students are assigned clinics where they are required to observe and then, later on, reflect on it. I happened to visit a pediatric hospital where I watch communication patterns between the nurses and the patients as well as vital signs that they made on the kids. The experience was illuminating and a learning experience too. The following paragraphs contain patient journals from the pediatric visit as well as my personal reflection of what I learned.
At the clinic, a twenty-seven-month-old baby was brought in with severe dehydration. According to the parent, the baby had had a two-day watery diarrhea which led to her dehydration. The child also vomited but did not present any signs of nausea. As the child was brought in, she held her stomach, cries but made no tears. According to the mother, the child was not immunized for all vaccines. She also claimed she noted the child had shown reduced urine output. She noted the symptoms after the child had visited a swimming pool with friends and according to her the child had swallowed too much pool water. At this stage, I learned critical skills from the senior nurses not only how they handled the baby but also how they communicated and listened to the mother as she gave her view and opinion on the issue. The child’s mother had anxiety and presented with mixed reaction. According to her, the child only swallowed pool water, and there was nothing serious about her condition. As I joined the other nurses in probing the mother, I felt she was manipulating and did not want help. In a bid to try and stay as professional as I could, I referred to Ludwig, & Kabat-Zinn, (2008) guidance on mindful practice. To uphold professionalism and I drew on the books guidance on patient stereotypes and why the lady had so much anxiety. The four stereotypes are dependent clingers, self-destructive deniers, entitled demanders and manipulative help-rejecters.
As the questioning went on, I tried to recognize the reasons why the mother would be behaving that way. I realized she ha...