Reflection In Nursing Practice

The ability to reflect on one’s life experiences is not only a vital skill within the nursing profession but also within everyday life. Within a healthcare setting reflection is seen as one of the most valued and important parts of the process of learning from theory and practical experience. For students working towards their professional registration as it allows links between theory and practice to be consolidated and for further understanding to occur (Howatson-Jones 2016). This essay will firstly look at reflection and reflective practice in more detail, thinking about its value for healthcare professionals and what this adds to professional practice. Following this a reflection on a critical incident from clinical practice will be introduced,
The practitioner may sit down and think, or write about what has happened during their working day, in order to allow the reflective learning process to begin (Johnson, 2013). This must then result in an action taking place, this is the final stage for effective reflection. This action could be positive, for example witnessing a moment in a clinical setting where a member of staff has shown great compassion, reflecting on how they did this, and adapting personal practice to include this. Another action could be a result of witnessing bad practice, reflecting upon the reasons this may have happened, and deciding the best way to proceed, both leaning from the experience and taking steps to ensure it does not happen again (Jasper, 2013). This process is often summarised by the formula, experience – reflection – action and usually made visual using a triangle or a circle showing a continuous process which should be occurring everyday within professional practice. The use of this imagery is important as it allows a clearly defined link between the three concepts (Jasper,
An example of where reflection was used to combat bad practice comes from The Francis Report, 2013. This report looked into the failings within the Mid-Staffordshire NHS foundation, this document has since been used as a tool for healthcare professionals across the UK to reflect upon and ensure that the failings identified did not happen in any other areas (Kaufman et al, 2014). This is one of the reasons reflection is such an important part of everyday practice in healthcare, the widespread use of reflection may mean that any future failings could be avoided. In addition to reflecting on incidents of bad practice, the incidents of good or excellent practice also gain value through reflection. Reflection allows the practitioner the possibility to embed these positive experiences into their practice, hopefully resulting in improved standard of care in their work area. Other benefits of reflection include exploration into new ways of solving problems which may arise in the future, and the chance to break out of routines which may have become outdated or are beginning to fall into the category of bad practice, and also to validate and confirm competencies as a practitioner (Jasper, 2013). When thinking about reflection and its benefits in relation to gaining consent, the