Reflection About Perception

Reflection is a major factor in "developing self-awareness" to improve services provided to everyone around me, this is to develop my own understanding in realising the good and bad made previously. Moving forward with a better understanding, as well as rectifying the mistake whilst recognizing the good points, (Horton-Deutsch and Sherwood, 2008).

I do not recall learning about reflective practice in my undergraduate studies. Reflective practice according to Barbour (2013), “is the cyclic process of internally examining and exploring an issue of concern, triggered by an experience, which creates and clarifies meaning in terms of self, existing knowledge, and experience; resulting in a changed conceptual perceptive and practice” (p. 7). According to Barbour (2013), reflective process has many positive outcomes to help guide the nurse to become an expert nurse that can make on the spot decisions that do not interrupt patient care. I feel that reflective practice would have been beneficial to help guide me from a student nurse to a practicing nurse with critical thinking skills.

The purpose of this assignment is to discuss the contribution of reflective practice for clinical nursing. Reflection has been defined as a way for individuals to “capture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate” (Boud et al 1985: 19)

As we begin to wrap up this semester, I reflect on all the learning and achievements I have obtained thus far in the program. Throughout this semester, my communication and relational capacity has grown, driving me to break out of my comfort shell. At the beginning of this year I had wrote a letter to myself, outlining three goals that I wanted to achieve. The three goals were: work with a palliative client, become more assertive, and to integrate family care into my practice. I began the semester off in acute care, on the medical floor. During the second part of the semester, I was assigned to be in the first group of students to start the Trail Outreach Nursing. My new placement has created a new goal of increasing my communication

Reflection can be defined as an active process that evaluates experiences, draws on previous learning and provides an action plan for future experiences (Kemmis, 1985). Kolb (1984) stated that reflection is required for effective learning to occur. Therefore, as a practitioner, reflection is a significant aspect of the role. This is because, a reflective individual is able to critically analyse their actions, allowing them to become self-aware. In turn, reflection gives them an insight of how they could have behaved differently to achieve a better outcome (Boud et al. 1985). The NMC (2015) advocates life-long learning by taking account of current evidence and knowledge. For this reason, without the constant application of reflection, health care professionals may find themselves practising, using outdated customs. In midwifery, it is our obligation to ensure that our knowledge is up to date. Additionally, it is vital that we are constantly challenging and improving our practice. This will ensure that women and families under our care always remain safe as well as improving the practice of midwifery.

Advanced practice nursing (APN) can be loosely defined as an area of nursing in which nurses are required to practice at an advanced level in a specific area of interest. APN extends the boundaries of nursing’s scope of practice and contributes to nursing knowledge, and the development of the profession (Canadian Nurses Association, 2008). In order to become an APN, the nurse must obtain a master’s or doctoral degree from an accredited university in an area of concentration designated for advanced practice nursing. According to Joel (2009), there are currently four major groups of APNs: certified registered nurse anesthetist, certified nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and nurse practitioners. APN focus on

What is the influence one classroom and one teacher can have on a person's writing? The answer being “a lot” because being a part of one English class my sophomore year made it possible for me to understand more about writing and the skills needed to achieve at the process. The teacher that I had such great communication with that year not only made it possible for me to understand what I was doing wrong, but how I could fix my problems. Without changing my writing from the past, I would still be stuck with essays and papers that lack flow and structure. Writing is such a great skill that is strongly needed in the field I wish to study and eventually one day work for in the future. While to some English and writing may not be important,

In the final days of this semester, one tends to look back at the work done over a difficult and long three months. In the case of this English composition class, reflecting on completed essays has allowed me to analyze the development of my writing over the semester. Although this semester consisted of only five essays, it has become apparent to me that my writing has improved in many aspects throughout the semester. One general example of this improvement is the vocabulary, where simple vocabulary in the first essay had become more complex by the final essays. Additionally, I also believe that my writing has become more reflective of my actual voice and opinions, an improvement considering my first essays were best described as vague.

(Ghandnoosh, 2014) implies that “Through codified practices and use of discretion, criminal justice professionals contribute to the overrepresentation of people of color in the correctional population” (p. 26). Throughout the readings, I have found that racial bias permeates the criminal justice system. Furthermore, I have examined the different effects on children with parental imprisonment. Additionally, in the readings, Ghandnoosh observes how racial perceptions affect punitiveness. Overall, the observation was informative and a new experience for me in relation to the court system.

As a junior in high school, I was extremely nervous about taking a college level composition class. I might have earned only A's throughout my high school English classes, but we only wrote a few papers a year and I was not confident in my writing. Yet, I am very glad I chose to take this class because I am very proud of the work I have created. Plus, I have improved my writing skills more this year than I ever could have if I continued my classes at my high school.

I will reflect on an incident that occurred during my shift to develop positive attitude towards nursing informatics.

An 86-year-old patient was admitted to hospital for right fracture neck of femur secondary to fall.

During my placement at Project Booyah, I found the 500 hours both a challenging and rewarding experience. Throughout my experience new knowledge and skills were gained as well as insight into looking at issues from a different perspective, ability to identify personal values clashes with organisational values and developing my self-awareness of these issues through critical reflection in which I found invaluable to my practice. Each of these areas will be discussed in more detail below, before discussing areas I have identified for further development.

Reflection is where you inspect and analyse, your own thoughts and feelings. It allows you to gain a greater sense of understanding about yourself and the impact you have on the world (Fisher, Chew and Leow, 2015). It enables you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to know which areas need support. Reflection is a fundamental part of being a counsellor, coach or mentor, as it plays a role in ensuring professional practise and the development of therapeutic relationships (Fisher, Chew and Leow, 2015). It also demonstrates your commitment to your clients and your career, as it shows you want to improve and develop. A useful way of reflecting is to use models of reflection to provide structure. Gibbs’ reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988) is an effective model to use as it ensures all features of a particular situation have been studied and analysed, which will improve understanding of the situation if it occurs again in the future. It does this through six distinct steps.

Reflection is considered as a vital element of professional practice as it precedes to insight and then subsequent change in practice. The hypothesis of reflection is not new as it can be tracked as far back in the 5th century by the influential Greek philosopher, Socrates and to the 1930s primarily focusing on John Dewey’s work. Dewey is one of the founders of learning from experience. He theorised reflection as ‘active, persistent and careful consideration’ (Dewey, 1933) initiated by a specific situation which was opposing, perplexing or uncertain. One of its most common use today is coming up with a thought, an idea, or opinion made or an observation made as a result of concentration, suggesting in essence a way of thinking in which one looks back and meditate upon (Agnes, 2004).