Reflective Practice in Health and Social Care

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