Within your reflection, describe the episode of care and how you assessed, delivered and evaluated care.

During my first day, i was asked to help with personal care for a patient. As i have been away for ages i froze but it all soon came back to me. We grabbed all the linen we needed such as- bed sheets, blankets, incontinence sheets, pillow covers, nappies and wipes. In this personal hygiene episode of care i learnt that when removing metanium(nappy cream) to use olive oil and water. We made a plan as a team that we couldn’t do it with just three of us as the patient is restricted due to disability . So we decided to grab another member of staff. Gaining consent and making sure dignity was met.

As we removed the patients vest we decided to roll it up over the head as it was covered in faeces. Then we gave the patient a wash and make them more comfortable. We explained throughout what steps we were doing. Mum was in the room to start with and was happy to give consent as the child is non-verbal. However, mum left as we needed more nappies as we were running low. Once we finished washing and drying the patient we then added more metanium to the saccrum as this patient is suffering with nappy rash. We then redressed the patient with a vest being careful to quickly disconnect and reconnect the oxygen and peg feed. I was worried as i had never done this before but did it quickly.

During this change we checked the skins integrity due to the patient being bed bound. The patient kept sliding down the bed due to disability and problems with the spine. We then decided to use a slide sheet under incontinence sheets, to get the patient back up the bed as their feet were touching the end of the bed. When the position was good we made a v-shape with pillows and tucked one under the right arm as thats the side the patient slants.

What did you do well?

Team work and good communication throughout.

Learnt about metanium and how it can cause burns if its not removed properly.

Asked consent from parent.

Got everything we needed before hand.

Consent and dignity was met.

Worked well with two practice educators and another student.

Used the correct bags to dispose of linen that was soiled.

What would you have done differently?

Learned more about the patient before i walk into the room.

Learn more about removing peg and oxygen and putting back on quickly and efficiently.

Maybe look into moving and handling with restrictions due to disabilities and spine issues.

Less time as it took at least 30 minutes with four of us.