Reflective Practice in Health and Social Care

This presentation discusses the importance of reflective practice in healthcare and social care. It covers the benefits and themes of reflective practice for healthcare professionals. The presentation also emphasizes the need for healthcare workers to demonstrate sound awareness of the impacts of their life and work on the services delivered.

Running head: PRESENTATION
HND health care practice year 1
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PRESENTATION
Speaker notes for slide 1
All healthcare professionals are expected to fulfil their duty of care, in order to
enhance their knowledge and skills with the process of continuous reflective practice. This
forms an essential aspect of maintaining their professional status. This holds special
significance for healthcare workers who are working in an environment that comprises of at
risk or vulnerable clients. Reflective practice also contributes to meeting encounters that
might ascend from opposing positions with sureness (Redmond 2017). It offers the health
care practitioners a detailed and systematic understanding of principled dilemmas in their
profession and also encourages novel ways of thinking (Knott and Scragg 2016). Professional
practice refers to the application of the acquired skills, abilities and knowledge in real time
settings and also comprises of theoretical knowledge and self-awareness. It has been
established that professional practice of an individual changes over time and evolves
continuously, thereby allowing the people to obtain and acquire new knowledge (Baldwin
2016). The principal benefit of this practice evolution is that the professionals are able to
maintain great standards of delivery of services. Thus, with the aim of maintaining
appropriate levels of concern, empathy and understanding for the service users, it is
imperative for the professionals to demonstrate sound awareness of the impacts of their life
and work on the services delivered.
Speaker notes for slide 2
According to Decker et al. (2013) engagement of healthcare professionals in working
with service users who have been identified to be vulnerable can be both an emotional and a
theoretical process. The two domains have been found to run concomitantly and often create
an impact on each other. Thus, in order to adorn the role and responsibilities of an effective
practitioner, it is vital that the two processes simultaneously operate in the mind of the

2PRESENTATION
professional (Schön 2017). Reflective practice has been found to increase the awareness of
one self and acts as a powerful tool that produces several positive outcomes namely, gaining
an awareness of the current health care practices that need improvement, affirming what is
done best, and recognising domains and areas that need substantial attention. My experiences
and knowledge have helped me realise some of the benefits of reflective practice that are
given below:
 Recognising and continuing good practice
 Modifying and improving the practices that fail to work well (Eppich and Cheng
2015)
 Challenging the practices that have been taken for granted
 Monitoring different aspects of health care practice on a continuous basis
 Identifying the instances when support is required from others.
Speaker notes for slide 3
I realised during my professional practice that in its simplest form, reflective practice
encompasses reflecting and thinking about what we do. It is closely associated with the
concept of learning from previous experiences and deciding about the steps that need to be
adopted next time. It was also understood that the major demarcation between ‘reflective
practice’ and ‘thinking’ is that the former demands a mindful effort to contemplate about
proceedings, and advance insights into them (Kehoe and Wright 2013). Hence, I considered
reflective practice as a dynamic, action-based, ethical and active set of skills that are
implemented in real time, while dealing with complex, difficult and real situations in health
and social care practice. While developing my reflective practice, I took into account the six
themes that have been considered vital for effective delivery of health services. I also
understood that reflective practice needs not be done on an individual basis. Thus, I tried to

3PRESENTATION
describe all experiences that I had encountered, explore my behaviour, thoughts and feelings
related to the incidents, theorize it with my preconceived notions, and identified the domains
where I needed to improve.
Speaker notes for slide 4
Professional attitudes, values, and behaviour in health and social care practice- While
implementing the first theme in my reflective practice I realized that health and social care is
a thoughtful profession. Caring for people who are considered vulnerable or susceptible to a
range of conditions, incorporates compassion for and association with people (Hood et al.
2014). Role-modelling and teaching caring is considered as a major challenge in our health
care curriculum. Caring for the service users is best established by the ability of health and
social care workers to exemplify the five central values of professional practice. Professional
values, behaviour and attitude commonly encompass human dignity, autonomy, altruism,
integrity, and social justice (Shahriari et al. 2013). As a caring health care worker, I tried to
integrate these values and attitudes in my clinical practice. The right of service users to take
appropriate decisions about the medical service delivered to them, without the influence of
any person is an essential aspect. Hence, I worked towards enhancing patient autonomy by
educating them about their current condition. I also displayed a respect towards their values
and preferences and tried to modify the services in accordance to them, in future practice.
Enhancing verbal and nonverbal communication skills greatly helped in the process, by
facilitating direct communication with the service users (Silverman, Kurtz and Draper 2016).
I explored whether adequate steps were taken to make the patients understand about
their role. I focused on encouraging patient participation in this context. The reflective
practice also helped gain an awareness on the fact that all health and social care workers are
accountable for their activities to the service users and should take into account all

4PRESENTATION
considerations for preventing avoidable errors, accidents, injuries and infections (Glasby and
Dickinson 2014). I also understood that patient safety should be considered the top priority
and collaborative efforts need to be taken by health care teams for maintaining it. I also
understood that all health care professional are expected to show adherence to the codes of
professional practice and competency standards that have become an important yardstick
against which the conduct of the health and social care practitioners are evaluated.
Speaker notes for slide 5
My reflective practice helped me understand that in the diverse health and social care
organisations, there is a need to display an ability to work in collaboration with individuals
having dissimilar cultures and values. The culture of an organisation is most often driven by
the values that persist throughout (Steers and Sánchez‐Runde 2017). I often found it
challenging to work with people having conventions and beliefs that were distinctly
dissimilar from mine. Hence, I realised the need of making all colleagues and service users
feel included, and that their opinions and preferences were being understood, respected and
recognised. During the reflective practice I also acquired knowledge on the ways by which
the physical and mental wellbeing of the individuals can be maintained. The practice helped
me take the resolution that I would treat all people with respect, protect them from neglect
and abuse, enhance their accommodation in the facility, and provide them education and
recreation opportunities (Ryff 2014). Mathematical approaches are expected to become an
essential component in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of diseases, and management
of chronic conditions (Tsaneva-Atanasova and Diaz-Zuccarini 2018). Thus, besides using
mathematics in the prescribing and administration of medicines, I also tried to learn about the
use of ‘Big data’ in future health and social care practice.
Speaker notes for slide 6

5PRESENTATION
Thus, it can be concluded that reflective practice refers to the ability of a practitioner
to observe their feelings, behaviour, skills, thoughts, biases, attitudes and professional
conduct, from an objective viewpoint. Participation in a reflective practice allows the health
and social care worker to remain exposed to several perspectives, which are responsible for
leading them to diverse ways of understanding situations and accomplishing course of
actions.

6PRESENTATION
References
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7PRESENTATION
Shahriari, M., Mohammadi, E., Abbaszadeh, A. and Bahrami, M., 2013. Nursing ethical
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