Broad-Sense Reflection In Nursing

Reflecting on an issue or situation is taking serious thought and consideration of what happened and how one could behave differently or respond differently. Simply, reflection is the ability to turn a negative into a positive. This is vital in nursing practice as when a nurse creates a mistake, learn a different technique or a situation happens that they feel they could have handled better, reflection allows them to contemplate where they went wrong and how they could correct themselves in the future. Reflection can create a nurse that is confident and knowledgeable in patient care as well as with everyday nursing situations. Nevertheless, it can be what turns a nurse into a proficient nurse.
Unfortunately, mistakes occur when caring for a
For example, if a patient is experiencing respiratory distress from lying still for too long after surgery resulting in a collapsed lung (Coombs & Moorse, 2002), it is a nurses duty to identify this problem and resolve it. These types of situations are essential to reflect on as they allow the nurse to develop their clinical judgement and enables them to explore their relationship with patients (Bulman & Schutz, 2013). In the broad sense reflection is the process of self-examination that entails looking over the events that have transpired in an effort to self-improve and encourage one’s growth (Ruth-Sahd, 2003). Furthermore, a nurse should always be reflecting and asking themselves, would they act differently or the same if the situation repeated itself (Bulman & Schutz, 2013). Nevertheless, reflection does not always have to arise from negative actions as it can originate from a positive, such as when an incident has no errors (Royds, 2010). Reflection can be used positively by reflecting on an incident a nurse once experienced or observed and motivating themselves to practice the best option available (Bulman & Schutz, 2013). Furthermore, another positive reflection can also come from communication, as from the beginning of their nursing career
Numerous nurses have found solace to these situations through support from their nursing colleagues (Halcomba et al., 2004). Even students can find themselves questioning and discussing with colleagues to reflect on a difficult situation they may have been confronted with (Bulman & Schutz, 2013). This reflection process shows the importance of a helpful environment to assist in developing one’s reflective practice (Bulman & Schutz, 2013). Nevertheless, death is not the only difficult situation that a nurse may come in contact with. A nurse, especially a student nurse, may experience confronting situations they themselves are unsure on how to respond and that go against their ethical code, such as patient’s being left in hoists or unattended in their rooms (Royds, 2010). Experiencing these situations can become quite distressing as it begins to become difficult to find positives in a clearly negative situation (Royds, 2010). However, self-reflection in nursing generally involves the complex situations that countless nurses may face throughout their career (Bagay, 2012) especially those that are caused by human