Gibbs Reflection Cycle
Student name
Institute
Gibbs Reflection Cycle
The Gibbs Reflection Cycle implemented in any profession or role is superior because it strains
on the acknowledgement of the emotional role and the role of emotions in reflecting on a
particular event. The profession of nursing is emotions-dependent job, with particular focus on
the psychiatric care and palliative health (Gibbs, 1988). The process of reflecting on the
emotions helps for the improvement and management of particular situations in the future of
profession. There are certain events in the nursing career that require special attention due to
their social and emotional value. It is essential to reflect upon such events and make a better
perception of how to improve the situation for the next time. As a nurse, I have been in certain
situations where reflection upon different aspects after the consultation was required. The Gibbs
Reflection Cycle provides a tool or means by which one can reflect upon the events taking place
in one’s career that require more reflection than other events. The following discussion discusses
the aspects of socializing with respect to cultural understandings by a nurse using Gibbs
Reflection Cycle. It also discusses the emotional aspects of the consultation and their
consequential impacts on the client’s condition.
Description
Once during my nursing practice a young patient aged 17, visited the clinic and talked about his
low self-esteem and depression pertaining to the acne spots on his face. The young man was
depressed that he would not be liked among people because of his pimples and their marks. I
started discussing the background of the difficulty he was facing due to the spots of acne on his
face for about an hour. The young boy described that the acne begin to appear on his face when
he was twelve, and the consequential negative aspects of the spots he got after the acne and
pimples. He went through certain events in his life that described the difficult situation in which
he was tormented because of the spots on his face. For example, he discussed the number of
times he was being bullied at high school because of the acne spots on his face and the resulting
failure of him in keeping his friendships and relationships at school. Due to all these events, he
faced immense psychological pressure and negative emotions overcame him. Pertaining to the
face acne and negative impacts, he was prescribed to take 3 months dosage of oxytetacycline.
Feelings
During my consultation to the young patients, I had several feelings about him and his situation
due to the acne spots on his face. Before my consultation with the young boy, I was having a
normal routine day at clinic with no specific feeling of distress or sorrow. During my
consultation with the young boy, I felt sympathetic towards the boy primarily due to the fact that
the patient reminded me of the time of my teenage. During the age span of 14-20, I used to have
a bad skin due to pimples for which I was being bullied at high school and resulting from that I
often felt isolated. Any other person who suffered the same situation would feel sympathy
towards that patient. As per review of O’Neil & Feldman (2011), patients with acne are
vulnerable to psychological depression. I felt his distress after the consultation with the patient.
However, the treatment of oxytetracycline could play significant role in lowering the depression
my patient. My individual experience with the acne and depression I experienced ensured that I
can well relate with the young man. I still feel sympathy towards the patient and I think people
would feel sympathy too.
Evaluation
The event was fine on the evaluation. At first, the consultation added great value to my
experience as it was to deal with young people and their challenges in their teenage. Before this
consultation with the young boy, I had never dealt with the teenagers in my assistant nurse
career, thus it was a great opportunity to gain more insights in this domain. This consultation
reaffirmed my career as a nurse. There are times when you are in doubt if you are truly treating
on the right path in your career. The positive side of this event was the unique experience I
gained in dealing with a teenager. However, the negative aspect of the consultation was the short
time of the discourse with the patient. This negative aspect might have made the young boy think
that he was being rushed and not heard properly. Purvis et al. (2006) discuss that an extreme
effect of acne and its spots in young individuals is suicide. The absence of discussion of this
point made me regret not discussing during the consultation with the young patient. I wished to
have brought about this idea during the consultation. Overall, the event was of good value.
Analysis
The event and the subsequent reflection on enhanced my ability of dealing with the patients of
young age effectively with particular focus on a situation. Though it was a successful
consultation, I would have better dealt with the patient if I had more time with him. My
sympathetic feelings towards the patient enabled the patient to open up himself in front of me in
every way about his skin and its problems. As per Hill and Randall (2012) the ability of nurses to
build up connectivity is one of the most crucial qualities that a good nurse must possess. My
experience in connecting with the young individual during the consultation validated this point
as I found that it is critically important for good nurse to make a good connection with the patient
first before proceeding to the next steps and this could be effectively done with the incorporation
of relevant emotions. The perceived embarrassment and stigma related to a particular event stops
young individuals to access the health-care and medical help (Christensen, 2010). Thus, there
was a sufficient reason for the young boy to not come to me to seek medical attention or
consultancy on his embarrassment regarding his acne spots on face. The lesson I acquired from
experiencing my consultancy with the young individual was the realization of finding, learning,
and the appropriate training opportunities on the way to deal with the young individuals and the
stigmas associated with different aspects of their life. The bad aspect associated with the
consultancy and its experience is the shortage of time while the benefit was the unique
experience I gained by the consultation period I had. Moreover, there is a significant difference
in dealing with the younger clients than the older ones; this is why it was unique experience for
me.
Conclusion
This consultation would have been a lot better if we had more time to discuss. In case of the
same situation I would deal with it differently. For instance, I would offer further support
services. The young boy reported that the spots made him intractable to girls; therefore,
additional information of confidence and self-esteem would be necessary. Again, time was short,
hence need of more consulting time. Longer time provides in-depth exploration of the
psychological effect (Hill & Randall 2012). More time improves sense of well-being to patients.
I need to polish my communication skills to make the situation better.
Action Plan
There are several different things I have inferred from this experience. There are a lot of things
that needs to be changed in the consultation if the same situation of client of same situation
happens to come across. Firstly, there is a need to distinguish the consultation of special care
from other consultations. This can be done by scheduling the consultations of special attention
over call first and separate it from the other normal consultations. Secondly, there is a need to
increasing time period of these special consultations from the other normal consultations. This
will automatically increase the time of discourse and there will be no inconvenience. The client
will be heard properly and the discussion will be in a deeper level and extent so that all the issues
will be covered during the discourse and client will have a better opportunity to open up himself.
Clients usually open up well when they know that they are heard properly. It can only be done by
increasing the time period of the categorized special appointments of such clients. Moreover,
there is a need for getting special training to deal with the clients of younger age group dealing
with their difficulties and challenges. It will help me next time to make the next appointments
with the teenagers more effective and efficient. My action plan has a number of good elements.
First, I will ensure, in the future, that the consultation room contain information and leaflets with
relevant information for young people. The information provided by young people has to be
done justice, therefore, in the future, will ensure that these young signs a confidential form and
all the information they provide will be kept confident. In the future I will focus on dealing with
young people who have been subjected to bullying.
References
Chang, E., & Daly, J. (2012). Transitions in Nursing-E-Book: Preparing for Professional
Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Christensen, H. (2010) Perceived barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking in young
people: a systematic review. BMC Psychiatry, 10(1), pp. 113.
Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford:
Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University.
Hemberg, J. A. V., & Vilander, S. (2017). Cultural and communicative competence in the caring
relationship with patients from another culture. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences,
31(4), 822-829.
O’Neill, J.L. and Feldman, S.R. (2011) Acne in adolescents: Quality of life, self-esteem, mood
and psychological disorders. Dermatology Online Journal, 17(1).
Purvis, D., Robinson, E., Merry, S. and Watson, P. (2006) Acne, anxiety, depression and suicide
in teenagers: A cross-sectional survey of New Zealand secondary school. Journal of
Pediatrics and Child Health, 42(12), pp. 793-796.
Randall, D. and Hill, A. (2012) Consulting children and young people on what makes a good
nurse. Nursing Children and Young People, 24(3), pp. 14.
Truong, M., Gibbs, L., Paradies, Y., & Priest, N. (2017). " Just treat everybody with respect":
Health Service Providers' Perspectives on the Role of Cultural Competence in
Community Health Service Provision. ABNF Journal, 28(2).