I have undertaken a reflection of self-medication, the action of patients carrying out their own administration of medications whilst in hospital, using Driscoll’s ‘What?’ model of reflection (Driscoll, 2007). The purpose of this is to reflect on how the process of introducing self-medication in hospital affected the team, and impacted on patient care and on my feelings at the time and now. Self-medication is considered in the context of a 28-bed acute medical and respiratory ward within the local NHS general hospital, the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, on the south coast of England.

Reflection improves practice by facilitating understanding of the world of nursing and enhanced care, where developments may not necessarily be as influential as hoped, requiring adaptation and refinement, which reflection can help bring about.

Implications for practice:

• There needs to be an inclusive approach to changes in medicines management
• Participating staff must be included from an early stage to ensure their concerns over devolved responsibility are addressed
• Formal patient feedback would be valuable in optimising self-medication

This article by Claire S. Nunn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.