Essay Example on Bed Making: Essential Skill for Nurses in Healthcare Settings

As a nurse, it is essential to learn a wide range of skills that are applicable in the nursing profession as well as healthcare. Since it is a requirement to rotate in the different medical and surgical wards, bed making is a skill that every individual should possess. Although it is always fun working in some of these wards, it becomes hectic, tiring and discouraging when certain aspects are not done in the correct manner (Dougherty & Lister, 2015). Such accidents or ineffective work majorly arises due to the lack of knowledge in executing the designed duties. One of the mistakes that I made while working under the medical ward is the bed making aspect. I am going to use the Rolfe et al. model in describing my reflective account in bed making. The model will help answer the question of what, so what and now what in my experiences (Rolfe et al., 2001).

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Bed making is an essential skill that all nurses should possess. Bed making is crucial in ensuring the patients are comfortable as well as their surrounding areas are hygienically maintained. The bed-making process requires that nurses employ technical and practical skills while at the same time considering issues of patient safety when moving around some things around the bed (Birpuri, 2012). After reporting to work that day, I was required to record all the new admissions made during the night and make the beds before administering medication to the patients. I did all the first activities very well; however, when reaching to the aspect of bed making, I did not know the exact way to go about. For instance, some of the beds were occupied while some of them had chronically ill patients who could not be able to move from their beds. In spite of all these aspects, I was still required to make the beds. Before being taken in the section of the ward, I knew that bed-making did not require any special skills since an individual was only needed to pull off the bedsheets are spread on others. However, I was wrong. Some of the staff members who saw me make the beds the wrong way even mocked me and challenged me to go and read on some of the bed making skills.

I remember I had to attend various learning sessions in the nursing laboratory to come up with a clear way of making the patients beds. In the nursing laboratory, I was able to learn skills to be used in making unoccupied beds, occupied beds, as well as making the different post-operative beds. From the training, I was able to learn to apply the knowledge obtained in making beds and improving the experience of patients. However, during the entire session of my bed making experience, I found making beds of terminally ill patients as well as those who had undergone surgery very challenging. Some of the patients were still in pain; as a result, I had to support them stand before making the beds. Additionally, some of the patients messed some of the beds while some had terrible body odor; as a result, I had problems keeping up with the lousy odor while making the beds.

The experience of making beds occupied with patients with various conditions has taught me multiple aspects. For instance, nurses must support the patients through maintaining their levels of hygiene while in the hospital. Such elements will make the working environment be a comfortable one (Fletcher, 2005). The application of specific measures during the bed making sessions were very effective. For instance, I ensured that I paid attention to both my safety and the safety of the patients. Soiled or dirty linen has the potentialities of transferring infections to patients hence elongating their hospital. Through my act of maintaining hygiene, patients were able to feel comfortable, consequently improving steadily from their conditions. However, some of the aspects I did were ineffective. For instance, when making beds that were occupied, I did not maintain the privacy of the patients in several cases. Confidentiality is crucial when dealing with patients in all aspects. The fact that I forgot to maintain patient privacy was a significant setback.

Through the experience, various values and opinions have been changed. From experience, I have learned that bed-making is an art that adopts the many principles of nursing. The use of various skills while making patient beds promotes comfort to the patients as well as a steady recovery of patients (Brown et al., 1971). It is, therefore, crucial that nurses prepare beds in specific ways to suit the patient's needs. Additionally, bed making should be made before the admission of a patient in any given ward.

Conclusion

Given that bed-making is vital in influencing the overall wellbeing of patients in hospitals, I have learned that I should consider various tactics to ensure all issues to deal with bed-making are efficiently addressed. Before beginning to make a bed in any given ward, it is essential to have all the required tools. From experience, I have learned that bed-making is a skill that all individuals in the healthcare should possess. As a result of my experience, I will take it upon my responsibility to teach all the new health profession about the importance of bed-making as well as the procedures used when making the different types of hospital. In the long run, these aspects will play significant roles in improving patient outcomes.

References

Birpuri, S. S. (2012). Principles and practice of nursing. JP Medical Ltd.

Brown, A. F., Flores, A. M., & Zohman, L. R. (1971). Bedmaking Methods. The American Journal of Nursing, 48-51.

Dougherty, L., & Lister, S. (Eds.). (2015). The Royal Marsden Manual of clinical nursing procedures. John Wiley & Sons. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=L5wcBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=Principles+of+closed+bed+making+in+nursing/++procedure+of+closed+bed+in+nursing&ots=zagRE2ZeZ7&sig=H9UlS4idHKwglTiwoCshGDr1POI&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Principles%20of%20closed%20bed%20making%20in%20nursing%2F%20%20procedure%20of%20closed%20bed%20in%20nursing&f=falseFletcher, J. (2005). Wound bed preparation and the TIME principles. Nursing Standard, 20(12), 57-67.

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., & Jasper, M. (2001). Critical Reflection for Nursing and the Helping Professions a User's Guide.