Reflective Writing: Injection Phobia

Reflective Writing: Injection Phobia

Introduction

Here am going to talk about one incident regarding injection phobia which happened during my work experience. It is also called as trypanopobia. It is the extreme fear of medical procedures involving injection and hypodermic needles. The condition was officially recognized in 1994 in the diagnostic as a specific phobia. It is estimated that at least 10 % of the American adults are trypanophobic and it is likely that the real number is more. The number in Oman seems to be more also but no one can give a percentage as there is no documentation for those cases. That way I decided to focus on this issue in my reflective writing (Costello, 1982, pp 280-286).

The Incident

I was for the first time in Jabir Secondary School giving immunization to grade eleven in their class room. The victim was a seventeen years old boy who fainted 10 minutes exactly after the diphtheria tetanus vaccination. My action was quickly to ventilate him by releasing the neck tie and clearing the space. I raised his legs up to maintain sufficient blood back flow to the brain .after a moments the boy woke up , me and my colleague rapidly shifted him to the school clinic . I really got shocked when I saw the school clinic. It was dirty and empty of all equipment. I tried to check the boy blood pressure and sugar level but I couldn't. The boy then was fine after drinking an orange juice. He spoke to me about his fears from injections since he was young. I reassured him and he was back to class in a good condition after two hours resting in the clinic.

My Evaluation of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour affecting work

My knowledge, skill and experience have a profound impact on making the patients avoid the fear of injections and needles. For example, on the incident mentioned above mi found that the patients need to be assured before giving the, treatment that it is for their good to go through the necessary tests and treatment. Before injecting they need to be made calm composed so that they are not fearful of the procedure. The professionals can help avoiding this phobia to a great extent by assuring them about the process. I believe that I have the necessary experience and skills to help people in overcoming their fear and go through the process smoothly. My learning and strategies to help and supporting them in overcoming their fears are obvious from the incident mentioned above where the patients became normal after some time. I believe that my knowing and experience of the routine medical procedures is sufficient to be competitive.

Requirement for Competent and Effective Practice

The most important requirement for an effective and competent practice is to get rid of any medical phobia, that requires support from the colleague and the medical staff as well as personal will of the patients. Any effective treatment of phobias includes exposure (see section anxiety management ...