Reflective Journal Older Adult Cedar Hills Langley Student Name Dermot Connolly Stenberg College

I am glad to have the first week of clinical under my belt. I felt it went quiet well despite my initial nerves leading up to it. I have being very conscious of the fact that I am one of the few people who is going into this clinical with no real healthcare experience. Prior to clinical, I had being feeling that the starters gun had gone off and I was late getting out of the blocks. The first day was designed as an orientation day and I felt that it helped settle my nerves. During our orientation, I was quiet surprised with the pace at which activates ran at Cedar Hills. I had anticipated much busier surroundings with a lot of activity. As I reflect on this, I had expected to see a lot of the residents more mobile and active as our older adult theory class emphasizes the importance of identifying ageism and societies incorrect assumptions that every older adult is immobile and cognitively unaware. At the end of our first day, I was feeling much more comfortable about my clinical and was quiet looking forward to getting started. My first full day of resident interaction began on Tuesday where I felt my lack of experience was the driving force behind my eagerness to get started. I started my day by offering to help one of the care aides get a female resident out of bed. She suggested I help get the males up instead which helped me realize that some resident and staff may not be comfortable being treated by a male nurse. I can understand their feelings of concern, I am a male being trained in a profession traditionally dominated by women. I realized that in order to be successful, I would need to develop not only a therapeutic relationship with the residents but also prove my competency with some of the nursing staff. I spent most of the morning with Lorna who was the RN on duty that day. Lorna was very helpful in that she answered any questions I had and allowed me to follow her around as she dispensed the patients medication. She helped me develop an understanding as to how to read and dispense the patients medication from the drug cart. I was particularly interested in the

insulin shots as I had not realized that for the vacuum sealed vials, air first needs to be injected into the vital in order to get the correct dosage of insulin out. I also learnt about the importance of different codes for insulin (Code 4 Vs Code 9) and I watched her complete an insulin glucose check. I felt that I learnt a lot from the time I spent with Lorna and I was quiet excited to start learning about dispensing my own medications. This was the reason I choose Reta Clarke as the resident I will help care for, as she is on several different medications, including insulin. By the time I had went to lunch, I felt I had learnt a lot and was feeling quiet excited about my clinical as my confidence had increased throughout the morning. During our lab day, Mary had mentioned that we were likely to see somethings that we were not comfortable with. I was reminded about this in the afternoon when I was helping Simmi get an older East Indian lady off the toilet and into bed. The care aides had told us that she was being picked up by a member of her family and then tried to get her back into her chair. The resident did not wish to go. I felt some of the care aides were less than sympathetic to her requests and even laughed off her concerns because I felt they could not understand Punjabi. I learned to distinguish between the roles and training of a psychiatric nurse and a care aide. I was very empathic to the resident as she seemed to be very cognitive aware yet her concerns were dismissed on the basis that she was old, frail and perhaps culturally different. While I felt I learnt a lot in my first week of clinical, I am still anxious about all the things I have yet to learn like administrating drugs and insulin shots. I am conscious that my eagerness to learn may result in errors in administering drugs which I need to be very aware of. I am also concerned about my abilities to write effect journals. I am particularly concerned about my abilities to write learning plans as I dont feel they are as good as I would like them to be. I

have found the process of writing learning plans very effective as they are good indicators as to where I need to focus my attentions during clinical. To Summarize, I think my first week went quiet well; I felt I developed a good initial relationship with a lot of the patients while at the same time attempting to complete some physical and mental assessments. For example, when talking to a patient I would add topics about the days of the week, weather or current events such as the Olympics. I found this beneficial in helping me assess the residents cognitive ability. While chatting with them, I would also attempt to complete a visual physical examination such as, was their hair brushed? Did they wear dentures? Had they cataracts? Did they have a hearing aid? etc. I am still a little nervous about washing and providing personal care to a female patient because I dont want to cause them any discomfort or embarrassment. I am also very aware that this is a fear I am going to have to overcome in order for me to be successful in this clinical.