The Importance Of Reflection In Nursing Practice

Teaching critical thinking to students is an essential tool to give the students a solid foundation when they are entering the workplace. Nurse educators are called upon to teach the student the fundamentals of nursing. Critical thinking by one definition is the ability to analyze and process the analysis in order make informed decisions while caring for the patient. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the literature in order to help decipher what critical thinking is all about and to take a look at the importance and potential ways in which to teach critical thinking to nursing students, Literature Review Critical Thinking at the Bedside

Nursing practice requires both critical thinking and clinical reasoning. Critical thinking is the process of deliberate higher level thinking to define a patient’s problem, examine the evidence-based practice in caring for the patient’s, and make options in the delivery of optimal care. Critical thinking involves the demarcation of statements of fact, judgment, and opinion. The progression of critical thinking requires the nurse to think imaginatively, use reflection, and engage in logical thinking (Alfaro-LeFevre, 2013). Critical thinking is a vital skill needed for the recognition of patient’s problems and the execution of interventions to endorse effectual care outcomes (Bittencourt & Crossetti, 2012).

Nursing is a most trusted and gratifying profession. As a nurse educator, I will express my passion for teaching by incorporating features such as clinical assessments, practical application of theory, evaluation, and role modeling into advanced nursing practice, from previous experiences and current experience and clinical practicum to find success and gratification in students chosen profession as well empowering leaners to develop their own strengths, beliefs, and personal attributes to become a good professional. Personally, I do have a positive attitude towards the personal and professional growth, and value ongoing learning and will stive to instill the same into my students learnig journey .. My objective as a Nurse Educator

This reflection is sought about through the use of reflective cycles, for example Gibbs (1988). Reflection enables the student to develop his or her own theories behind why an event occurred, this is also achieved by linking theory to practice in order to gain a deeper understanding (Levett C. 2010, Stonehouse D. 2011). For this practice placement portfolio the reflective cycle that I have chosen is The Reflective Cycle by Gibbs (See appendix one) (Gibbs 1988). Although it wasn’t made predominantly for reflection through nursing scenarios, as it was developed for educational purposes, it does give the student a cycle which can be used easily to analyse their event in a linear fashion. Although Gibbs reflective cycle is one which is mainly focused on the event itself, rather than the knowledge that can be sought from delving further into the reasoning behind an event, it does create a cycle which allows the individual to focus on their actions and the reasoning behind what they did.

Reflecting on the past seven weeks I have acquired countless knowledge, which I will use to further strengthen my profession as an Advanced Practice Nurse. The course allowed me to think beyond my current practice knowledge and acquired innovative ways to evaluate the situation at hand. The learning objective in program outcome four helps set standards that I will use to guide my clinical practice to meet various healthcare needs. Using the case studies has helped to further enhance my knowledge on disease physiological state, using differential diagnosis, disease manifestations, and clinical presentation. It has also taught me the skills on how to differentiate between similar diagnoses to properly identify the problem and treat the patients.

This essay will explore the reflective discussion on the NUR4021 module, demonstrating my understanding of the professional, ethical and legal values that impact on nursing in a diverse society. According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2015) reflection enables you to make sense of a situation and understand how it has affected you. The NMC (2015) shows the importance of reflection, by requiring nurses to complete a reflective discussion as part of the revalidation. When Nurses reflect It helps them think, plan and deliver high quality and safe care to patients. (RCN 2018).

Now why do nurses use this technique through studies and work life? Reflection or also known as reflective practice is very beneficial and productive to help nurses. It can be used for a lot of different concepts and ways.it is applied by the use of nurses as a way to recap or journalise thoughts, memorize, experiences, lessons etc throughout your study and work life. '' Reviewing experience from practice so that it may be described, analyzed, evaluated and consequently used to inform and change future practice in a positive way'' (Bulman, 2008).

Upon reflecting on this experience, I feel like I am more confident in handling the situation should it arise again. Reflecting on it has made me realise that not everything I did was wrong and has helped me to explore what I need to improve on. Reflection is important in the nursing profession as it allows us to think about our actions and talk about how we could have carried them out differently (Johns and Burnie, 2013). Reflection plays a big role in developing the student into a nurse (Barbour,

Reflective Practice in the Early Years Tools for Practitioners 1. Introduction “We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.” -John Dewey- You have probably heard the term “reflective practice”, but do you really know what this means?

The following reflection piece is based on an event which I experienced during my internship placement. Johns model of reflection will be used for this assignment. The reflection is based around my own personal experience with a terminally ill patient. It focuses on one main issue, providing hope for patients and how I felt about it. it also discusses my feelings, the knowledge I had, my knowledge gaps and what I learnt through literature during my reflection.

The Process of Reflection The process of reflection is central to clinical supervision. Launer (2003) describes external and internal factors in supervision whereby clinical practice and sharing skills are external and reflection is an ‘internal conversation.’ Brunero & Stein-Parbury (2008) discussed the effects of clinical supervision in nursing staff and argued that self-reflection generates a sense of self-awareness and knowledge to the individual. Supervisees or students may be asked what happened during a clinical event, how they felt, the implications of their actions and what they would do differently if faced with the same situation.

Reflection is like looking in a mirror and describing what you see. It’s about thinking back to an experience and questioning what I did, and emotions that I felt during the experience, and then reflecting on a better and more sufficient way of doing it in the future (UNISON, 2016). Gibbs Reflective Cycle is the model that I have chosen to use while reflecting back on the module “Learning from service users and carers”, Gibbs believes that this module is useful for helping people learn from what that they experienced. He calls this “Learning by Doing” (Mind Tools, 2016). When finding out that a module I would cover on the social work degree was learning from service users and carers, my initial thought was care homes and carers within them.

The Term reflection can have many meanings to many people. Reflection can carry meanings that range from the idea of professionals engaging in solitary introspection to that of engaging in deep meaningful conversations with others. But for this assignment I will focus on; what is refection in the clinical setting, why it is important for health care professionals to reflect and where the ideology of reflection came from. I will also provide a personal experience of reflection during my time in the clinical setting that helped me to come up with a solution to a challenging situation. WHAT IS REFLECTION?

In early 1970s nursing started to move away from routines and rituals towards research-based practice (James and Clarke 1994). Reflection is a broad and complex process (Kenzi-Sampson 2005) therefore there is not a set single definition (Jarvis 1992). According to Reid (1993, p.305) reflection can be defined as a “process of reviewing an experience of practice to describe, analyze, evaluate and so inform learning about practice”. The question is why do we need reflective practice. This essay will try to