Reflective Thinking and Writing

This report discusses the importance of reflective practice in the healthcare sector, specifically in caring for mentally challenged children. It explores the challenges faced and ways to improve the quality of services. The report also introduces the Driscoll Model of reflection and its three stages: what, so what, and now what.

REFLECTIVE
THINKING AND
WRITING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Reflective practice is refers to as thinking or reflecting about what personnel does and is
closely linked with experience. This practise identifies different aspects of learning experience as
what one did, what happened and what they decided to change such situations in future. In this
report, use of Driscoll's Model of Structured Reflection will be used so that learners practice
skills are reflected based on past clinical experiences (Horton-Deutsch & Sherwood, 2017). This
model will help personnel of health care sector to learn from past experience and improve course
of actions in future. This will identify moments that were full of surprise and puzzled at
workplace as being care assistance for mentally challenged children.
MAIN BODY
Reflective practice is putting conscious efforts to think and develop insights about past
events. This is one of useful skill for health professional who study their own experience so that
they can improve quality of services provided by them. This diminishes the gap between theory
and practice for nurses and other health professionals. Reflective practice is process of
professional learning which comprises of effective reflection, development of self awareness
which leads to learning, decisions, achieving goals and change in behaviour for future practice
(Husebø, O'Regan, & Nestel, 2015).
While working as nurse with mentally challenges children I faced many challenges and
situations which enhanced by experience of working in complex environment. Mental disorders
in children are mostly life long which requires attention, support and assistance from care
providers. Thus it is one of my responsibility to take care of children who are not more than 12
years of age so that their growth and development can be stimulated. While assisting those
children I had pleasure time and different learning experience which will help me in future. This
reflective practice will challenges that I faced while caring for such children and identify ways
by which I can improve quality of services.
Driscoll Model of reflection (1994): This was developed by John Driscoll in 1994 and
matched three questions to the stage of learning and identifies different questions that are used to
complete the learning cycle. There are three stages of what, so what and now what which helps
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individuals to learn from its past experience and change actions or decisions in future (Farr and
Cressey, 2015). Explanation of model is given below:
WHAT: This first and foremost phase in model is of descriptive level which defines learning
experience of past incidents and complete study in reflective practice (Tom, Ewan & Mitchell,
2017). My responsibilities were to look after the children and help in their growth or well being.
This reflection thinking is done with the view of future so that I can correct my actions and
decisions in case if I face similar problem. The main purpose is to hatch some positive outcomes
from learning experience so that I can improve my services as nurse in assisting mentally
challenged children. During my assistance I worked with mentally challenged children which are
till 12 years of age I faced many challenges and issues. There were challenges related to
psychological and emotional state such as emotional disturbance, communication issues,
disturbing thoughts and unavoidable situations. I many times faced disturbing thoughts about
mentally ill children. There were stress by aggressive behaviour which caused problems to staff
and other patients also. They behave sometimes in restless, destructive, hyperactive and noisy
behaviour which creates issues for staff and other children. I faced inappropriate behaviour of
those children which made me impatience while eating, bathing, dressing and doing daily routine
activities.
I faced complex problems while performing my duties because it demands lot of work
and I has to be available for 24 hours which made me irritating. I faced issues related to handling
child and securing it from any harm because of their behaviour. Taking care of mentally ill
patients and specially children is emotionally distressful which leads to inner sadness and pain.
Sometimes I experience that taking care of mentally ill children is difficult and stressful. Another
challenge was to understand the needs of such child as they are not able to communicate
properly. I faced many psychological and emotional problems such as sadness, stress, bitterness,
worries, restless behaviour, etc. which leads to many issues in personal life. There is need that
public awareness should increase so that other people like patients, visitors and staff members
behave in positive manner and tries to give healthy environment to the children (Joyce-McCoach
& Smith, 2016). According to me key aspect is education, there is need that these children gets
education like normal children and get chance to develop socially. This will also helps in their
behaviour with others and might lead to positive changes in their restless behaviour. There is
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most important need that health professional creates environment so that nurses and other staff
can work closely with these mentally challenged children.
I as being a nurse or care assistance can also significant role in providing emotional and social
support to children so that it proves to be positive for children. It is important that health
professional works closely with families and care assistance of mentally challenged children so
that they comes out from crises and create positive environment. It is true that there is problem in
the ways they react and act as I can clearly recognise that they find it hard to fit in the society
and community. Their actions and behaviour are different from other children and are not
accepted by other kids or adults. Even if you decide to go out to some places with them, for
example the way they are not acceptable by other individuals and they face discrimination and
biased behaviour. They become aggressive and hyper active which creates issues in taking them
out and thus such children are bound to be at one place either in houses or take care centres
(Davy & et, al., 2015). Taking care of child with mental issues is related with various social
challenges. Social services and caring related responsibilities were major areas where I faced
problem bring a care assistance. Other issues included lack of social awareness, life and support
for mentally challenged children needs to be addressed.
Care assistance are held responsible for the behaviour of such mentally ill children as
other thinks that they are spoiling child with their carefree behaviour and not been strict while
they behave in aggressive and negative behaviour. It is most common that claim of ignoring
patients with mental disorders are associated with duties and responsibilities of caregivers
(Howatson-Jones, 2016). Most common stigma that children with mental disorder and their
parents suffered in society that there is lack of awareness about mental illness that these children
are discriminating and are treated with less dignity as compared to any other individuals in
society. The general public need to understand that these children are normal like other kids. If care
assistance or parents go out with them other individuals are surprised, which left child wondering
about their behaviour. This is one of disturbing behaviour of society which creates restless behaviour
in child.
SO WHAT: Due to the nature of disorders from which child is suffering and aggressive behaviour
that they display sometimes have bound me to control the environment for safety reasons of others.
Parents and other care assistance were disturbed by the caring responsibilities which demanded a lot
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of hard work and professional has to be on toe every time to perform the daily activities of the
children (Sinclair & et. al., 2016). One of major issues that I experience is that mentally challenged
children were more vulnerable and have suffered mistreatment from other individuals in society.
There were cases of being beaten, pushed, and burned by other children and individuals in society.
Major issue is that such mentally ill children were not able to speak or recognise person who was
behind such cruel action when parents or authorities wanted to know. These mentally ill children
were more at risk of being abused such as being burned or raped as they are not able to communicate
with other family members. There is need that I am able to be flexible and adaptive in working
environment so that I am able to manage my workload and be productive.
At that stage I get irritated or restless because of negative behaviour of such children but now
I feel that I have to be more patience while taking care of mentally challenged children. I have to be
more empathetic towards these children so that I am able to tackle complex situations and improve
my quality of services. I felt that there is need of good communications skills so that I am able to
understand issues that these children faces. This is because of the experience that I has while working
as care assistance in health care sector that these children are not able to communicate issues that
they faces and so there is need to understand it. This experience was different from my colleagues as
I was more patience and personally involves in taking care of children. I personally experienced that
team work and collective efforts of other health care professionals is also important so that complex
situations are taken care and there is no accidents for children and staff members. The most restless
experience that I had was stress and I was not able to manage it which influences my behaviour at
workplace. So there is need that I should attend training sessions about stress management so that my
stress does not hinder quality of services as care assistance. There is need that I am able to manage
my time to every patient so that they get equal care and attention by me and I am able to organise my
work accordingly.
NOW WHAT: Me and other staff members identifies different ways by which these issues can be
address which are faced by health professionals and parents of mentally ill children. Number of
mechanisms can be employed in different challenges that will depend on what is the basic issue and
how it can be helpful to the health professional and parents. Other measures that we tried to take is
training the child to perform daily routines such as using wash-rooms by themselves and speaking in
case of pain or other issues. We as care assistance also involved family members to seek information
about child’s behaviour and disorder, we also took help from internet to gather more information
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about the disorder. Being Health professional I adapted various measures to deal with challenges the
families and children faced in day to day life. There is need that they get regular health assistance
from the professionals in training the child to do self care and provides positive environment to such
mentally challenged children. Treating and taking care of mentally ill children is one of most
challenging task and I started to suffer with stigma and other emotional issues. I was facing issues as
mentally disorder child are mistreated, discriminated and segregated in the society and I was making
efforts to increase awareness about mental health. Sometimes children were facing issues when they
are told words that made them feel bad from others and even from family members. There are many
instances where I faced incidents where other individuals tell bad words to me also as I was care
assistance for such children. Sometimes they are bullied and discriminated at social places by other
children and are considered to be useless. I have many cases where such children are not accepted by
their parents because they are born with mental disability. These were some cases which I experience
in working with mentally challenged children.
Parents of such mentally challenged children has expressed their views about concern that
they do not get support from other individuals and people in the society. This is one of major issues
that parents of such children face as heath care services for treatments is expensive (Johns, 2017).
They also confess that their social life is destroyed by the presence of mentally ill child in the family.
Parents usually avoid going out with child like to social gatherings because of aggressive and restless
behaviour of child. Parents sometimes experiences disputes with neighbours and other individuals in
the society because of aggressive behaviour of child which I has also experience often. There were
accusation and using of bad words against parents as child was responsible for destroying properties
of neighbours and other patients . This has resultant in creating environment of tension and lack of
peace in health care centre which I also experience being a care assistance. In the near future if I
came across the same situation I would like to more helping and patient while taking care of such
children as they more care. It is my duty that I should provide proper and complete care to mentally
challenged children so that they can grow socially. I should be more responsible about aggressive
behaviour and would be more conscious about communications signs they give so that I can
understand their issues. The best way is to help such child is to provide training so that they are able
to perform their daily routines and do not depend on their family members for such. This will help
them to do self – care and be less dependent on other person for their well being and positive
changes in their behaviour is also expected after this training. I would try my level best to keep
patience while these children behave in aggressive and hyper active manner.
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As an individual I want to increase awareness about mental health so that these children do
not face discrimination and segregation from society so that they are treated well. There is need that I
should be able to tackle and handle these children in future with care so that quality of my services
also increases. This will provide scope for me to enhance my skills as care assistance and serve these
mentally challenges children with proper responsibility. In the near future my past experience and
learning outcomes will help me to work with better dedications and efforts so that I can treat such
children with most positive behaviour. My discussion with parents and other family members also
enriched my information regarding issues that individuals face while living with such children. This
experience will also helps me to understand the situations and circumstances of child and the
environment which was provided to them. This will help me to create better and friendly
environment where they feel safe enough or grow socially. There is need that such children should be
provided with proper education so that they can develop social aspects and able to live a socially able
life for long (Pretorius & Ford, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that Driscoll 's Model of reflection (1994) analyse
the situation of reflective learning that an individual had in past. This model helps in improving
skills of personnel for future course of actions with enhanced skills. Reflective practice is
process of conscious thinking about past experience that any professional has and to find out
scope for future development. This report study past experience and find out scope fir future
development as care assistance in health care sector.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Horton-Deutsch, S., & Sherwood, G. D. (2017). Reflective practice: Transforming education
and improving outcomes(Vol. 2). Sigma Theta Tau.
Husebø, S. E., O'Regan, S., & Nestel, D. (2015). Reflective practice and its role in
simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), 368-375.
Farr, M. and Cressey, P., (2015). Understanding staff perspectives of quality in practice in
healthcare. BMC health services research, 15(1), p.123.
Howatson-Jones, L., (2016). Reflective practice in nursing. Learning Matters.
Sinclair, S., Torres, M. B., Raffin-Bouchal, S., Hack, T. F., McClement, S., Hagen, N. A., &
Chochinov, H. M. (2016). Compassion training in healthcare: what are patients’
perspectives on training healthcare providers?. BMC medical education, 16(1), 169.
Johns, C. (Ed.). (2017). Becoming a reflective practitioner. John Wiley & Sons.
Pretorius, L., & Ford, A. (2016). Reflection for Learning: Teaching Reflective Practice at the
Beginning of University Study. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in
Higher Education, 28(2), 241-253.
Davy, C., Bleasel, J., Liu, H., Tchan, M., Ponniah, S., & Brown, A. (2015). Effectiveness of
chronic care models: opportunities for improving healthcare practice and health
outcomes: a systematic review. BMC health services research, 15(1), 194.
Joyce-McCoach, J., & Smith, K. (2016). A teaching model for health professionals learning
reflective practice. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 228, 265-271.
Tom, G., Ewan, K., & Mitchell, D. (2017). Reflecting on Clinical Practice Spiritual Care for
Healthcare Professionals: Reflecting on Clinical Practice. CRC Press.

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