SOCIAL CARE SETTINGS
Task 1 Number 1
REFLECTING ON PRACTICE
What is reflective practice?
Reflective practice enables you to develop your skills, increase your knowledge and deal with emotionally challenging situations. Developing your reflective practice early on will pay dividends on everything you undertake as well as building a strong foundation for a successful career.
What you did - How you did it - Why you did it - How you felt - What went well - What you would do differently. The Oxford dictionary defines the meaning of reflect as “to think carefully and deeply about something” .
Reflection is the personal examination of your own thoughts and actions, it is about thinking things over. Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull over and evaluate it. When working in an adult care setting this means being conscious about how you interact with colleagues, your clients and the environment. It means thinking about how you could have done something differently, what you did well, what you could have done better, how could you improve what you did. It also means reflecting on your own values, beliefs and experiences which shape your thoughts and ideas. I am responsible for providing an equal, non discriminatory and inclusive service to all individuals no matter what a person’s personal beliefs and values may be. Reflective practice is exploring why and how you practice, thinking back over a situation or activity and then developing a different approach to gain insight into a new way of learning.
Why is reflective practice important?
It is important to reflect on work activities so that you are able to develop on your own knowledge and skills. Thinking things through and reflecting on a day at work will help you to pick up on things that you may be able to improve upon in future. You can also learn from any errors that you