Concepts of Inter-professional and Collaborative Practice 15 Research Paper 2022

Concepts of Inter-professional and Collaborative Practice 1
CONCEPTS OF INTER-PROFESSIONAL AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE
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Concepts of Inter-professional and Collaborative Practice 2
Introduction
Nursing is a very demanding profession. It demands careful attention to details, dedication, and
sacrifice.
For this reason, interpersonal reflection is essential for the nurse to forge the way forward during
their practice. Reflection entails drawing insight from what experience offers, and Jasper (2013)
identified it as a significant approach for any professional eyeing a lifelong learning experience.
Generally, reflective practice involves learning from and through involvement to build a new
understanding of self or practice (Jasper, 2013). Also, the method is viewed as one which
promotes the personal and professional development of both independent and qualified
professionals. Reflective practice helps individuals appreciate their weaknesses and
shortcomings but also focus on their strengths to better their performance. Therefore, it helps in
skills acquisition and furnishing, which aims at improving professional quality. In the end, it
stimulates professional and personal growth (Jasper, 2013).
This paper focuses on personal reflections from my work in the oncology ward during my first
year as a qualified nurse. I was in a team where I worked as a qualified nurse for the first time
after transiting from school. I will discuss the lessons, skills, and things I have learned during my
practice. Furthermore, I have used Gibb's model to explain my experience. Gibb's model is
unique since it contains six reflective stages which help the reflector to think through the subject
in a more precise way (Bass, Sidebotham, Creedy and Sweet 2019). The model puts into
consideration knowledge, actions, emotions, and opens a suggestion of the repeated nature of
experiences (Bass, Sidebotham, Creedy and Sweet 2019). Therefore, this model offers a more

Concepts of Inter-professional and Collaborative Practice 3
flexible and expansive way of looking into situations more particularly to bring about positive
future changes.
Description
I was assigned as a qualified nurse to work on patients in an oncology ward. In this ward, my
task was updating expert nurses with information with the patient's progress. This involved
patient recovery, reception of treatment, and give further recommendations to what could be
done next. My team comprised of experts and physicians as well as different expert nursing and
healthcare professionals from other healthcare disciplines (Howatson-Jones, 2016). Generally, I
had to do a lot of work caring and treating many children who had mental problems, some of
who were so scary to handle. These included children from the age of 10-17 years of age. In my
experience, I have learned the art of proper and clear communication with members of my team
as well as patients (Middleton 2017).
Furthermore, I have also learned the value of respect for others in the course of practice.
Admittedly, it took me so long to adapt to my new roles as a trained nurse working in that
situation. However, I have learned to use my skills also but adequately gained more skills which
became instrumental in critical situations.
During my assignment, I was disseminating reports to the appropriate departments as well as
communication strategies with the physicians. However, I realized that different personalities
within the group create different group dynamics. For instance, the way information is received
among the different people I have worked with. As a result, there was a need for self-evaluation
to ensure that I continue to do that which I am supposed to do but in a manner that is ethical and

Concepts of Inter-professional and Collaborative Practice 4
professional without hurting others. Sometimes, decision making was a big problem for the team
(Almoayad and Ledger, 2016, p.267). For instance, we could take too long to decide a team
because of the many arguments and angles through which we handled the situation. However, as
time went on, we knew each other and build a formidable team that worked and decided
together.
There are things which became evident during my practice. We opined differently in meetings,
something which escalated chaos and conflicts. As mentioned earlier on, the difficulty in
decision making emanated from our different angles with which we opined but also on our
schools of thoughts (DeGrande, Liu, Greene and Stankus 2018, p.78). Our work was greatly
hindered, and we made baby steps in our work because we had ineffective communication. We
could not understand each other. As someone good in communication, I was able to observe and
realize the root cause and came up with suggestions to correct the situation through feedback.
Besides, I also learned the importance of excellent communication in departments (Eisenberg
2017, p.18; Tom, Ewan and Mitchell 2017). For instance, one nurse once came into the service
bay and directed that all nurses focus their attention to a particular patient who had become
violent outside. That would mean that we stopped attending to the patients we were attending.
Frustrated, one of the patients began shouting, lamenting, and throwing himself on the ground.
However, one of the nurses spoke to him in a more peaceful manner and cooled him down.
Feelings
I had very high expectations coming into this job in the first place. Having demonstrated
competency at the highest academic level, I was hopeful that someday I would serve in an
environment in which my services will be of great importance. I also hoped that based on my