Reflection

Effective reflection helps the practitioner to see the situation from an outsider's perspective, so that they can develop a better way to respond to a similar scenario in the future. Reflection is meant to achieve a change in practice, rather than simply repeating the same mistakes (Schon, 1983). Many different models exist for structuring the reflective process. Regardless of the framework used, the reflection models are meant to accomplish three things. They are supposed to promote reflecting on events, self-evaluation and analysis, and a plan to change actions in the future. This Reflective essay will utilize Driscoll's 'The What?' model as its structure (Driscoll, 1994). This model has three components"

It is vital for me to be able to reflect on my own practice as I can adapt how I think, feel and behave in order to better meet the needs of service users. This statement is agreed by Horner (2004) who suggests that ‘reflection is a prerequisite to being an effective social worker, as it requires an approach that questions our thoughts, experiences and actions’.

Reflection is a process that enables practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences with patients to move towards more mindful and effective practice (Johns 2005).

Reflection at its most basic principle "provides us with an opportunity to review our decisions and decision-making processes" however, in practice, reflection is a far broader and contextual concept, it is about understanding a person’s life and the actions they have taken throughout their lives. (Nussbaum 1997).Reflective practice first emerged from the work of a man called Donald Schon, having found that there appeared to be a gap between theory and putting it into practice (Fook 2006a: 441). He went on to state that reflective practice is a way of improving professional practice, through critically evaluating how we respond to practice situations and being self-aware (Mezirow 1991). Whereas reflection is applicable in all aspects of living (Fook 2006a).

Reflection is an essential attribute for the development of autonomous, critical and advanced practitioners. It is the ability to examine one’s actions and experiences in order to enhance individual clinical knowledge and nursing practice. Reflection is a professional motivator to “move on and do better with one’s practice”, with the common goal of learning from one’s experiences and examining oneself (Caldwell & Grobbel, 2013). According to Chong (2009), “reflective practice should be a continuous cycle in which experience and reflection on experiences are inter-related”.

Reflecting upon experiences is “a key part of developing your understanding” and therefore helps you “develop in your professional role” (Oko and Reid, 2012) and for this reason is essential to social work practice. Through reflection on experiences I gain a better understanding of myself, my actions and what I have learnt. Reflection was not a skill I’ve used before this course and it took

The fate and future of nursing are now more than ever dependent upon self-care, health promotion and self-generated coping and healing modalities. Working as a health care provider is more than just a job, it is a career. However, being a reflective nurse is extremely important, “Reflection is an essential attribute to the development of autonomous, critical and advanced practitioners” (Caldwell & Grobbel, 2013). It allows for nurses to reflect on the day’s practice, whether they treated the patients with the best possible care or whether improvements were required. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to show the significant importance of reflection within the nursing profession.

INTRODUCTION Reflection brings back past experiences to help an individual develop their knowledge. It is usually linked to having a better understanding of what has occurred and why. Reflection gives an individual the opportunity to reflect on how previous experiences might be improved, and get feedback from an objective and a subjective point of view (Liobe et al 2016:7). With the new system of Revalidation, the NMC (2015) states that reflection and reflective practice are sued to improve personal and professional development by helping nurses to reflect on feedback received from patients, colleagues and others.

Self-reflection is essential for me because I am working in a field where I would be serving children and families. Also, to provide myself an opportunity to reflect on my skills and abilities to interact with one another once I enter practice setting. As a Child and Youth Care practitioner, I would work with ones from different ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds. By doing so, I need to recognize my own values and beliefs to interact with other

According to Howston-Jones (2013) reflection is not something that is out of the ordinary for everyone to do in their everyday lives. Reflection is the act of looking back on a situation, event or incident critically and making sense of it to learn from it and alter our actions to gain better outcomes should the same incident arise again (Capelhow, Crouch, Fisher & Walsh, 2013). As new experiences happen to everyone, everyday; it would be right to consider reflection as an ongoing process within everyone’s life, a process that is repeated, honed and a skill to be developed (McKenna, 1998).

Reflection defined by Boyd and Fales (1983) as the process of internally examining and exploring an issue of concern, triggered by an experience, which creates or clarifies meaning in terms of the self and which changes individuals conceptual perspective (Seibert and Daudelin, 1999:20). Additionally, Boyd and Fales also demonstrated that reflection is the key to learning from experience (Seibert and Daudelin, 1999:20). Whereas, Moon (2004:80) had defined reflecting as a process in which we reflect in order to learn something or we learn as a result of reflecting.

Think about your daily schedule. Is it jampacked with appointments, meetings, and other busy activities? Do you ever sit back and take some time for reflection or are you too busy with your career and your practice to take the time for it? Reflection should be an integral part of your day.

The term “reflection” directly refers to one’s own ability for serious thought or consideration regarding events, which have occurred in the past. Professional bodies and organisations utilise reflective practice within continuous professional development as an effective tool to evoke critical thoughts regarding their own actions. This analysis of one’s own

Reflection is defined by Howatson-Jones (2013), as “a way of examining your experience in order to look for the possibility of other explanations and alternative approaches to doing things” (p. 6). The practice of reflection is important for numerous reasons. As stated by Hargreaves and Page (2013), reflections promote good practice and in the occurrence of a difficult or challenging situation, they can help to identify where things went wrong and how to improve the outcome for future incidents. As identified by Jasper, Rosser and Mooney (2013), reflection offers benefits to both the patient and the practitioner. Practitioners are more likely to avoid routine practice, continuously develop their knowledge and identify faults to improve on. Patients are more likely to receive higher standards of safety and better quality of care

Reflection helps one to improve especially when they can draw lessons from the positive and negative experiences of the past. It is an active process that enables individuals to understand how historical, social, cultural, as well as personal experiences contribute to how we study or learn. In any aspect of life, reflection can be applied to help individuals focus their efforts in getting the most out of different situations, and, therefore, improving self-performance and becoming lifelong learners.