On my first day on the floor, I was assigned a patient who had suffered a spinal injury. During their stay at this facility, the patient had recently developed Clostridioides difficile (which is also known as C. diff). My clinical instructor had not known this and had asked me if I would like to be assigned another patient, although this was a possibility, I believed that this was an opportunity to test myself as I had never been in a clinical setting before this day. During my assessment of the patient, my clinical instructor had aided me in the assessment of the integumentary system where we had discovered that the patient was incontinent, and his brief was overflowing. Thus, we began to gather supplies in order to bathe the patient. While bathing the client, the patient continuously experienced bowel movements and the feces had now gotten onto the bed as there was not adequate time to ensure the bedpan had been placed under the patient properly. During this experience, I had maintained composure to ensure the patient knew that although he was incontinent that he still deserved respect. Although the situation was not ideal, ensuring that the patient still felt dignity in this instance was crucial, as stripping a man of his dignity could potentially result in him to not attempt to adapt to his new circumstances due to his injury and feel as though the health care providers deemed him as a task which much be completed rather than an individual. Thus, when we had finished bathing the client, my instructor had other obligations to attend to as this had taken much of her time. I thus made certain to replace his pillows, and dress the patient in a gown as he was scheduled for physical therapy in the near future and he had already appeared embarrassed. In this instance, I showed the man compassion and portrayed the respect in which he had deserved. However, some nurses had not done this. As I was asked later to clean him again, in which a nurse had not maintained the same composure in which I had. This had only shown me the way I would never want to portray myself around a patient. As I had continuously checked on my patient that day aiding him in activities of daily living, and changing blankets if deemed necessary. Portraying compassion with maintaining composure to bathe him. I believe on that day I had gave my patient a sense of dignity and allowed him to know although his circumstance he still deserved the same respect as any other patient. That being said, I continued to show my patients the same respect, compassion, and care every clinical experience I had, as this is the way I would like to portray myself as a nursing student.
