Mustapha, Nadja Jamilah D.

NSG 131.1 - Related Learning

Experience Prof. Jonaid Sadang
Day 1
Narrative Report
As I start the second day of geriatric duty within my community, I
prepared my school uniform and prepared my geriatric assessment tool.
Today, January 26th 2021, I am tasked to identify an elderly person,
preferably a kin, to be assessed and serve as my client throughout the given
activities by my professor, Sir Jonaid Sadang. There are a lot of elders in my
neighborhood, but not everyone is willing to partake in my activity, as a
nursing student. Since the elder client I’ll choose will partake in the nursing
process, that the elders claim is time consuming and uncomfortable to them,
especially the nursing assessment. Luckily, my aunt agreed to partake in my
thorough geriatric assessment.
Before starting my geriatric assessment, I introduced myself properly to my
older client and discussed necessary information regarding my geriatric
assessment. I also explained to her the benefits and importance of the
assessment for her well-being and gave her the idea that I might ask some
personal questions during the assessment.
During the interview, my older client is responsive to every inquiry I
asked and necessary information was obtained. Accordingly, from asking
personal questions during the interview, I asked permission to my older
client that I will be starting the thorough physical examination, that requires
privacy to maintain her dignity. Ergo, we entered an empty room and carried
out the physical examinations. Initially, my elder client was hesitant to
participate in the physical examination because of the exposure of private
areas, but I encouraged her that the information will be confidential and the
procedure is safe. Lastly, after we did all the necessary components of my
comprehensive geriatric assessment, I expressed my gratitude, for her
cooperation and the useful information I obtained.
In the virtual duty, there are a lot of challenges faced by nursing students.
The challenging part of online learning is that, even the most basic activity of
case assignment is mindfully considered, whereas, in a geriatric facilities,
nursing students can easily identify a patient and initiate the nursing process
immediately, unlike in the home-based learning environment. I think I can get a
better grasp of geriatric care in a health care setting because the environment is
deemed for elders.
In addition, I learned that is it necessary that I, as a student nurse, should be
aware of flow or sequence of the geriatric assessment tool, especially the
specific questions to be asked to the elder patient. If a student nurse prepares
beforehand, this results to lesser time during assessment. Over all, it was a
memorable experience, that added knowledge in my study of geriatrics.