Reflective Practice

Reflective Practice: An Essential Skill In Professional Development of Nurses

Reflective Practice: An Essential Skill In Professional Development of Nurses

Introduction

Reflective practice is an approach widely adopted by professionals in evaluating their practice, particularly in nursing and health care. Reflection is a necessary process in order to comply with the requirements set forth by the Post-registration education and practice (PREP) and the professional development standard formulated and implemented by NMC. Reflection can therefore be regarded as a fundamental process for all professionals registered within the NMC. This essay specifically focuses upon reflection in relation to the student Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN).

Discussion

Relationship between Reflection and Professional Development

Reflective practice in nursing can be guided by models of reflection. Using a model or framework can be beneficial in aiding practioners and students of nursing and health care to, reflect upon incidents, and critically analyse those incidents; therefore helping the practioner to learn and move on. This essay aims to explore the concept of reflection. It will discuss and critically analyse Gibbs (1998) theoretical model of reflection whilst also considering other models and their use in relation to the role of a SCPHN student working within children and family community (Chang & Daly 2007, pp. 132 - 154).

Reflective practice is not a new concept. It originated in the 1930's from work carried out by American educationalist John Dewey. Dewey (1933) developed the idea of reflection as a way of learning in education. This idea has since been drawn upon in the works of many others; Schon (1983) similarly highlights the idea of reflection as a way of bridging the gap between theories to underpin professional practice. Other definitions include: “Reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice”. Although there are many definitions of reflection worded in many fashions, it is evident from them all that a broad agreement exists in that reflection informs learning. Burnard (2006) argues that having a framework for reflection also supports practioners to maintain the actual practice of reflecting.

There are many models of reflection. Some models use a cyclical approach and some use questions. Gibbs (1998) model of reflection is one of many models used to aid the process of reflection. Gibbs Model of reflection is shown in a cyclical manner. The model laid a comprehensive series of six steps, in order to assist professionals with the reflective practice. Gibbs reflective cycle is reasonably simple. It encourages a detailed description of the event, which leads to an analysis of feelings about the event. It encourages an evaluation of the experience, urging practioners to recognise and consider the good and bad points of the experience. This is followed by an analysis to make sense of the situation. A conclusion can then be made and other options can be considered and the experience can be reflected upon to examine what you would do if the situation arose again. This model is very basic and makes an excellent starting ...