Reflective Practices and Health Care Essay

There is much I have learned this week through the readings, and it was a bit overwhelming. In the past, about the only thing I have done political is vote and hat was years ago. Unfortunately politic have held no known interest for me. I do not talk about politics, nor do read about them. Most of the time I just believe it is a corrupt and someone is always out to gain something. I will admit I am very naive.

The transition from a newly graduate nurse to a confident, capable nurse is a difficult evolution for any individual. The use of reflection enables the individual to develop their skills and knowledge in a structured way, encourages change when possible and allows for acceptance of difficult thoughts and feelings. There are several types of reflective models and it is important for the individual to find what best suits them. Reflection can be useful to learn from experience, develop critical thinking, teach emotional maturity, and empower graduate nurses while teaching them a lifelong skill.

Reflective practice in nursing is the process where we examine our nursing ability’s and practice in order to critically think and analyze the way we work and think about the views of others in our practice, what we could have done and we could have achieved a greater result by doing this also allows us as nurses to include best practice and use our own judgment in patient care to show the factors that either aid and hinder nurse to patient relationship. (Lowenstein, Bradshaw and Fuszard, 2001) described reflecting in nursing practice “the nurse must first come to understand what he or she defines as ideal practice”.

I had been working with a child where I needed to conduct an assessment. Before the meeting to share the information with the parents, I sent them a copy of the completed assessment to enable them to gather their thoughts so that at the meeting I was able to answer any specific concerns. The mother had rang me the day she received the assessment as she was not happy about the comments written. I explained to the mother that we could discuss the matter at the meeting but, although she did not respond, I could sense that the mother was still irate.

I entered the La Clery Wellness Centre with the primary goal of putting what I have learnt so far in my schooling to practice and mastering these skills, mainly measuring vital signs. I also wanted to go about observing the duties of the health aide and getting acquainted with the staff and setting itself. However, my week required me doing more than I initially thought, in addition to learning additional skills. I did manage to go about achieving the aforementioned goals, especially that of measuring vitals. I not only performed the task in a primary health care setting but also in the home setting where I was ecstatic knowing I was competent enough to do them properly and know the rationale behind the process and the values obtained.

I have never really focused on the issues that our economy is facing; therefore, I find reading articles like these rather interesting. They provide me with material and questions I would not have looked up before. My favorite quote from the article was, “Monetary policy has been keeping the patient alive, creating the possibility of a lasting cure through fiscal and structural operations,” as stated by BoE Chief. I thought this line to be very funny and blunt. The comparison of the nation to a patient really put into perspective the how tragic our economic system is doing. Also, I have come to belief that people are okay with the monetary policy because it has been providing some relief to our problems, but people must find an actually solution,

The learning during lecture will be passive, but the discussion will allow for interaction of patient and nurse in which the patient can ask questions (Beagley, 2011, p. 336). Instantly a nursing diagnosis was being formed.

Assessment Item 1: professional practice scenario – Reflection Step 1: Kat’s Story Step 2: The Registered Nurse Standard of practice 1.2 states that a Registered Nurse “develops practise through reflection on experiences, knowledge, actions, feelings and beliefs to identify how these shape practise.” (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016). The profession of Nursing teaches critical thinking through the reflection of past experiences, therefore, this standard links specifically with a reflective piece, as reflection allows an individual to critically think, analyse and evaluate past experiences to positively influence their future practise and identify what occurrences can be done more efficiently or effectively in a future situation.

The purpose of returning to a situation that occurred in practice is so that I can reflect on how I handled the situation well and how I can improve in order to make other patients experiences even better.

(Schon, 1983) These ideas are similar in thought as they both form evaluation, analysis resulting in change. The process of reflection in health care is typically based on models of reflection which are made up of stages of analysing the situation you are in. As said in the NMC Code (2011, pg 20) ‘All nurses must be self-aware and recognise how their own values, principles and assumptions may affect their practice,’ allowing us to develop and learn from experiences.

A woman came to see a Healer, and was directed to me. The patient stated (and demonstrated) the fact that she could not stop sneezing. She also had a bad runny nose. Looking at her symptoms, I deduced that she must have an allergy. It did not seem too serious. She said that it was the first time this had happened to her, and that it had started this season. I told her that it was probably hay fever, as it was particularly bad this time of year. Next, I told her the best way to treat it would be with an Allergy Elixir. She asked me what was in it, and I told her that it contained billywig stings and mandrake root, with some eucalyptus and honey as well.

This guides the nurse during planning, implementing, and evaluating learning activities. If the patient is in the pedagogic stage, the approach is more authoritative and the instructor controls elements of the process such as the environment, planning, needs, objectives, activities, and evaluation. In the andragogic stage, the instructor seeks more input from the learner. This approach is more collaborative, mutual, open, and trusting, because the learner is active in identifying needs, setting objectives, choosing activities and evaluating success. The last stage, gerogogy, refers to the process of teaching an older person. Due to the effects of aging, the instructor must accommodate methods due to changes in sensory and cognitive perception. Slower processing times, decreased memory, visual changes, hearing losses, and decreasing energy are factors that affect learning in this stage. Strategies to increase success include rest periods, pacing, environment and the use of repetition and rehearsal (Bastable,

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.

Reflection is not without criticism. Despite the benefits of reflective models like that of the Gibbs cycle, (9) suggests that some models can become so structured that they start to restrict the nurse in their thinking. Reflections also trigger problematic events and emotions within nurses and a further claim is that it might exhibit a lack of skill in the performance leaving the nurse discouraged and insecure (8). Despite this highlighting reflection in a negative way, there are arguably benefits to this. It allows nurses to express the attitudes they feel towards their practice, relying on the positive feelings while attending to the negative (11). (14) Supports this by implying that reflection lets nurses identify and consider their strengths

There are many models of reflection. Various theorists such as Dewey (1933), Kolb’s (1984) later adapted by Gibbs (1998), Carper (1978) later adapted by Johns (1994) have developed reflective models that nurses use as framework when reflecting. All models are structured and presented in different ways, however all cover the same principles in regards to the reflective process; description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. Without a model we would be focusing on just one aspect of an incident as we reflect, or if it was a difficult incident, we may dismiss that some parts of it had gone well. Without a model, the scope of our reflection is very likely to be limited, as is the potential for experiencing the benefits