Keown, 2016

Bradley Keown
Kapiolani Community College
Professor KaUa'Alohi Aiu
Nursing 360
Reflective Journal
Week 2

Keown, 2016

During my second week of clinical, I ran into a potential ethical dilemma

relating to the head to toe assessment I performed on my patient. I was able to
identify two sores in the back upper right side of her mouth that had previously
been unreported. After reporting this to my nurse, there was not much response on
her part. Even after shining my light into the patients mouth for her to inspect, all I
could get her to do was put a small mention in her DAR note that simply said she
had informed the doctor on the phone. The next day there was no new note about
it from the doctor or anything else. I feel that in a cancer patient that is also taking
an inhaled steroid, the presence of a black sore in the soft palate is something that
needs to be assessed. I brought this to her second nurses attention and again was
met with a feeling of Not my problem, she isnt complaining, no need to add
another problem for her. However, as a student, I feel I took the issue as far as I
could without causing trouble. Add to this the fact that my patient was refusing
care regarding an abscess, I guess they feel it was important.
I was able to document in an organized and accurate manner this week. Due
to the small amount of material that we are able to document for our patients, it
makes putting everything in relatively simple. I had forgotten to put in descriptors
for my patients BM and urine, but that was a minor issue that was easily remedied.
I feel this week went very well and I am looking forward to taking on two patients
next week.