Reflection In Social Work

The purpose of this essay is to reflect and learn from an incident that happened while consulting with a client in the Hospital in the Home (HITH). Reflective practice is defined as the process of making sense of events, situations and actions that occur in the workplace (Oelofsen, 2012). Johns (1999) states the essence of learning through reflection is for the practitioner to surface contradiction between what she intends to achieve within any situation and the way she actually practices. There are two types of reflection. Reflection in action or reflection on action. The difference between those two types is the timing of when the reflection occurs, during or after the incident. Most of the time negative situations will prompt a reflection however it can be very powerful to reflect on a positive experience. There are many different models of reflection, in this essay I will use the simple 3 stage reflective cycle (Oelofsen, 2012).

Description of the incident:
While working in the Hospital in the Home one of my patients, Paula, came in to have her Infusor with Antibiotics renewed as well as her dressing for her PICC line changed. Paula is a 56 year old Aboriginal Lady from a remote community in the Northern Territory. She was admitted to the Hospital in the Home (HITH) a week ago. Paula was diagnosed with Meliodosis and needs treatment with iv antibiotics for at least one more months
I would love to get more training in this area but feel there are not enough learning opportunities in my workplace. I will discuss this with my unit manager. I find it challenging to switch from being the expert and working very task based in the intensive care unit to working in partnership with my clients and it will require time, ongoing commitment and training, reading and