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Reflective Account on Clinical Placement with Community Mental Health Description The Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) is a group of professionals that provides assessment, treatment and support for people experiencing mental health problems. I am on Clinical placement duty for 4 weeks as part of the requirements for the Nursing course. My role is to get involved in supervised practice in clinical situations under a qualified Community Psychiatrist Nurse (CPN) which include teaching in hospitals, clinics and community health centers. Feelings I feel obliged to render clinical placement duties in order to comply with the Nursing course requirement. It is my duty to assist members of the community team in their noble task of providing people-centered support to people who are under 65 years of age and suffering from mental health problems. Initially, I was nervous in interacting with professionals because they might tease me along the way which could probably lead to my surrender. Their presence made me uncomfortable. As my work progresses, I began to realize that self-respect to one another is essential to the success of my training. I have observed that our interactions have become mutual and so the lingering doubts inside me began to disappear. Evaluation Working under a supervised practice is not an easy task because the supervisor might think of you as an incompetent and unreliable trainee, which is perfectly understandable. The remorse feeling eventually dissipated as it made me realize that whats important is commitment to the job. The experience serves as a challenge to me to overcome the feeling moving forward and to be successful in my clinical placement duties.

Analysis Being a nursing trainee is endowed with responsibilities that need to be nurtured to ensure respect and harmonious relationship among concerned people including the supervising professional. I managed to control my feelings and I believed the ill-motive within me regarding my superiors has been properly suppressed in time. Their practice of constantly seeking my service through kind words contributed to the decline of my persistent uncomfortable feeling. A mutual cooperation between the parties (me and the professional) has resulted to consistency of actions and words, gain of respect to each other. Conclusion It is my firm belief that mutual respect for one another is essential to maintaining close relationship. My training will be greatly enhanced if I regularly follow the orders imposed upon me by the head and continuously portray the value of commitment and perseverance. Practicing self-discipline is also a necessity in order to attain my objective of completing the clinical placement program and the consequent completion of the course. Feelings of discomfort are just products of distorted imagination that needs to be rectified through proper actions. Action Plan Having learned from experience, I intend to adjust myself to the same situation in the future. This attitude should always be carried by me especially if I successfully completed the course and become a professional on my own right. A professional nurse should always be attentive to the needs of his subordinates and trainees to dispel fear and the feeling of inferiority among them as what I had experienced. If such an event occurs again in the future, I will do what has to be done encourage cooperation and mutual respect to one another, and observe self-discipline as well as show the value of commitment to work to achieve the goal desired.

Reference: Jasper, M. (2003) Beginning Reflective Practice Foundations in Nursing and Health Care, Nelson Thornes, Cheltenham.