Understanding Personal and Professional Development for Nursing

Reflection in personal and professional development is when an individual studying the way on improving the way they work, which can be an improvement of knowledge and understanding and/or skills. This act of reflection is a way to be more confident and become more proactive and qualified professions.

A simplest form of reflective practice is an individual reflecting what they did; it is a form of learning from their experience. It is an idea of thinking back on what had happened, what can be learn from the experience and if things can be done differently if it occurs the next time.

Reflecting is a way of assessing yourself, which helps to develop essential skills and review the effectiveness. It is a tool that individual would use to question themselves, in a positive way and decide if there is a better solution if the same and/or events occurs in the future. (open, 2018)

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Reflection is divided into two categories which is reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action. Reflection-on-action refers to looking back on incident that had occurred and information that has been gathered to uncover any knowledge was used and/or can be used in practical situation.

Reflection-in-action refers to thinking about or reflects while one is carrying out the activity.

Nursing and midwifery council is one of the professional whom requires professions to have five written reflective accounts within the three years since registration when joined or last renewed date. An approved form of each reflective account must refer to an individual continues professional development, a piece of feedback from the practice and an experience and/or events in the professional practice and how it is related to the code.

Nurses and midwives required having a reflective discussion with another nurse or midwives who is registered with the nursing and midwifery council, this discussion is to encourage nurses and midwives the culture of sharing, reflection and improvement(s). Nursing and midwifery council requires nurses and midwives to discuss their improvement and professional development and to make sure they do not work in professional isolation. The purpose of reflective discussion is to enable nurses and midwives to understand a situation and how it can affect themselves and/or others. Reflection allows nurses and midwives the opportunity to identify areas to learn and develop from it and to consider if any changes or improvement can put into action in everyday practice. (NMC, 2018)

Effective reflection allows professional practice to be improved and enhanced in the process which also allows improvement to be achieved with confidence. This also enables changes to be made, identify support or training needed and praise to be given where it is due.

Quality care is when a vulnerable individual receives the highest degree of care services, treated and/or taking care by a professional who has the knowledge and understanding of the service they provide. Quality care must including the properties of effectiveness to provide care processes and achieve the desire outcome, efficiency to maximise the quality of care being delivered, equity is to provide equal quality to those who may be differ in personal characteristics, patient centeredness is to meet individuals needs and preferences, safety to prevent actual and/or potential bodily harm and timeliness to meet needed care while minimizing or prevent delays.

The reflection act is a way of promoting development of autonomous, fully qualified and under training professionals and self-direct professionals, it is also an effective way of developing a more effective healthcare service. Reflective practice is known to be associated with improving quality of care, enhance personal and professional and closing the space between practice and theory.

Reflection is a crucial tool for professions use in practice because it is learning settings which professional learn from their own experience. Reflection allows individual to pin point their own strength and weakness in practice, which they may assist professions to expand essential knowledge and skills. If professions do not reflect in their practice, many mistakes or errors and omissions may not be discovered.

When professions use reflection in practice it can assists them to focus on their thoughts and develop new ideas, may gain confidence, experiment their ideas or thoughts (in a safe way or environment), it helps to develop their conceptual and skills, they can reflect upon the event and make sense of the experience, reflection allows professions to express their feelings and emotional responses, they may become aware of their actions and strategies. (participatorymethods, 2018)

Many professions uses reflection model as a guide for improvements on continues professional developments, it is a key way for individual professions to develop both their specialisms and the service they provide.

Gibbs is one of the reflection models, which can be used in various situations. Gibbs model assist individuals to understand of an event, for example how an event occur, what causes it, how the situation was solve, if there is anything can be done in a better. (resources, 2015)

Gibbs’ reflective cycle model is used in many different situations and is a useful way in evaluation. Reflection can be used to improve understanding situation that occur and proof of practice. It is a valuable tool to use after an incident that occurred which help individual to reflect on the incident and create new learning and/or improve knowledge and understanding and to form new ideas.

Description, feeling, evaluation, analysis and conclusion are six stages of gibbs model, description is to describe the incident, focusing on information that is relevant to the incident. Information which may include what and how the incident happened? What action has been taking? Was the action taking sufficient? , all information taking builds up a better understanding of the incident. Feeling is the emotion felt before, during and after the incident. Evaluation is objectively evaluating the outcome of the incident whether it was positive or negative. Analysis is thinking about what can help or did not help with the incident. Conclusion is to conclude what had happened before, during and after the incident, conclusion should include question and/or answer such as what was learned from the incident? What could have been done if the outcome was negative? If the same or similar situation occur in the future what can be done to gain a positive outcome. Action plan is plan which is ideas of how to improve and handle situation more effectively if the same or similar incident occur in the future and gain extra training and skills if necessary. (resources, 2015)

Conclusion

Gibbs is one of the models for reflection which a useful tool for profession as it helps individual to learn from their experience. It helps professions to improve and/or make changes to their practice, this will not only just benefit themselves but also to others members of the public and their colleagues. For example healthcare workers uses reflection to assist them to have a deeper understanding of potential impact on the quality of care that they delivers, allows healthcare worker to illustrate their personal and professional strengths and/or weakness. It can help them to improve their knowledge and understanding and skills which are an advantage when delivering care services.

I believe reflection is not only for professions but can also be used by other individuals as we can reflect on our daily life bases, because every individuals will come across some sort of incident during their lives and using reflection can assist every individual to improve and understand themselves better.

There are many benefits to reflective practice such as promote deep learning, identify personal strength and weakness, if there is any areas that can be improve, identify any new education, knowledge and understanding and skills, understanding self believes, values and attitudes, encourage self-motivation and self-direct learning and possibilities improvement of personal confidence.

Limitations to reflective practice can be a problem for healthcare workers because not all healthcare workers understand the reflective process; individuals’ may not feel comfortable challenging and evaluating their own experience, could be time consuming and healthcare worker may not find the time to write down their reflective experience due to they work in a very busy environment, individuals may be confused to which situation or experience to reflect to and evidence that was gathered may not be adequate to resolve clinical dilemma such as it may require scientific evidence.

References

• ELN Resources. (2015). Graham Gibbs Reflective Cycle Model 1988. [online] Available at: http://resources.eln.io/gibbs-reflective-cycle-model-1988/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2018].
• Macbeth, S. (2018). Reflective Practice | Participatory Methods. [online] Participatorymethods.org. Available at: http://www.participatorymethods.org/method/reflective-practice [Accessed 24 Oct. 2018].
• Nmc.org.uk. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/revalidation/reflective-discussion-guidance.pdf [Accessed 21 Oct. 2018].
• Open.ac.uk. (2018). Self reflection | Unison. [online] Available at: http://www.open.ac.uk/choose/unison/develop/my-skills/self-reflection# [Accessed 21 Oct. 2018].

Bibliography

• First Steps. (2018). Reflection in action. [online] Available at: http://rcnhca.org.uk/personal-and-people-development/reflection/reflection-in-action/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2018].
• Latrobe.libguides.com. (2018). LibGuides: Reflective practice in health: Types of reflection. [online] Available at: https://latrobe.libguides.com/reflectivepractice/types [Accessed 24 Oct. 2018].
• Mindtools.com. (2018). Gibbs’ Reflective CycleHelping People Learn From Experience. [online] Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/reflective-cycle.htm [Accessed 24 Oct. 2018].
• Rcni.com. (2018). Reflection in action | RCN. [online] Available at: https://rcni.com/hosted-content/rcn/first-steps/reflection-action [Accessed 24 Oct. 2018].
• University, O. (2018). Reflective writing: About Gibbs reflective cycle – Oxford Brookes University. [online] Brookes.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/students/upgrade/study-skills/reflective-writing-gibbs/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2018].