Cluter Skill Essay

This essay will critically reflect and evaluate my practice on one element chosen from one of the five Essential Skills Cluster (NMC 2010). In order to do this, I will appraise my practice on my chosen skill, explore the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for safe and effective delivery of chosen element. I will evaluate the significance of my learning and the implication of this to practice development.   The ESC I will address in this essay is ‘Medicine management’ and the chosen element is ‘people can trust the newly registered graduate nurse to administer medicines safely and in a timely manner, including controlled drugs’ (NMC, 2010). The reflective model I have chosen to use is Gibbs reflective model (Gibbs, 1988, cited from Jasper, 2003). Gibbs model of reflection incorporates the following: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and an action plan.
Medicine management (MM) is a major component of nursing practice and DOH (2004) defines it as,
“The clinical, cost effective and safe use of medicines to ensure patients get the maximum benefit from medicine they need, while at the same time minimizing potential harm”
The administration of medicine is a significant aspect of nurse’s everyday practice and is one of the most common intervention carried out in the NHS (Blair, 2011). Traditionally, medicines were prescribed by doctors, dispensed by pharmacy and administered by nurses. At present, MM is a multi-professional concern and nurse’s work in partnership with other health professionals in order to achieve best patient care and outcome and to minimize medication errors which accounts for more than 7000 deaths annually (Childs et al. 2009 ; Hughes and Blegen, 2008).
My skill development and experience of MM has been under the direct supervision of a Registered nurse (RN), my mentor.

Prescription charts
Description
Prescription chart as defined by Coombes et al. (2009) is a written instruction that provides directives for...