... Furthermore, The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2004:13) defined competency as, "possessing the skills and abilities required for lawful, safe and effective professional practice without direct supervision." Therefore, it may be argued that it is vital for a nursing professional to be able to carry out a fundamental clinical skill, such as measuring temperature, competently. The clinical skill I have chosen to reflect upon is the measuring and recording of a service user's temperature. The rationale for this choice was the fact that the determination of a patient's temperature is a very important diagnostic tool within the children's branch of nursing, which will be a key skill to my professionalism as a registered nurse. An accurate measurement of temperature is a vital part of a baseline assessment when a child is admitted to hospital. Hockenberry, Wilson, Winkelstein and Kline (2003:180) emphasised that, "The rapid and accurate assessment of a child's ...

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