The Reflective Practitioner

This report discusses the importance of being self-aware as a health professional and explores different approaches to reflective practice. It also highlights the skills of continuous self-reflection in promoting personal and professional growth.

The Reflective
Practitioner

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
LO 1............................................................................................................................................................3
Discuss the importance of being self-aware as a health professional.......................................................3
LO 2............................................................................................................................................................3
Identify approaches to reflective practice................................................................................................3
LO 3............................................................................................................................................................4
Demonstrate skills of continuous self-reflection in promoting personal and professional growth...........4
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Reflective Practitioners are people who try to solve problems through an inquiry about
practical solutions that is balanced (Johns, 2017). They look back at the work they do and the
different ways in which they can improve. For a person to become a reflective practitioner, a
person is required to acquire skills of reflective practice. This report explains the importance of
being self-aware as a health professional as well as some of the different approaches to reflective
practice.
LO 1
Discuss the importance of being self-aware as a health professional
When I was in my third year as a nurse, I had the responsibility of maintaining the
records of the patients in the ward where I was on duty. I was once on the night duty when a
doctor asked me to file all the records of a patient with heart disease. Since I had no prior
experience, I filed the documents that were to be kept confidential with the regular reports. When
I presented the file to the doctor, he told me that I was not supposed to share this information
with anybody and that it strictly had to be kept confidential (Kayapinar, 2016). From this
incident, I learnt that as per the NMC code of conduct, a nurse or midwife has the duty of
confidentiality to all the patients who are receiving care at a health care setting. This incident
also taught me to be self-aware and also to keep the patients safe from any kind of harm.
LO 2
Identify approaches to reflective practice
There are different approaches to reflective practice, some of which are explained below–
 Reflective Journals – This is one of the ways wherein a reflective practitioner can
document his/her ideas, feelings and observations. Maintaining a reflective journal can
help in focusing on thoughts and developing new ideas.
 Peer Groups – A group of peers who meet each other on a regular basis and reflect
together can prove to be an important contributor of reflective practice. They can discuss
issues related to work, how to use and organize time etc.

LO 3
Demonstrate skills of continuous self-reflection in promoting personal and professional growth
Reflection improves both personal as well as professional growth by leading an
individual to self-awareness. It also improves overall knowledge about clinical skills and
knowledge. Personal and professional growth are necessary if an individual wants to become a
successful reflective practitioner. Some of the basic skills of continuous self-reflection are self-
review, personal reflection, being self-aware, self-assessment etc. These skills help an individual
in assessing themselves and find out ways in which they can work upon and improve the same
(Reflective Practice, 2019). This can further lead to an overall improvement of the practice as
well as productivity. Thus, all these are skills that promote personal as well as professional
growth.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that being self-aware is an important thing as
a health professional. Also, there are many approaches to reflective practices like peer groups
and reflective journal. Therefore, various skills are essential for promoting personal and
professional growth.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Johns, C. ed., 2017. Becoming a reflective practitioner. John Wiley & Sons.
Kayapinar, U., 2016. A study on reflection in in-service teacher development: Introducing
reflective practitioner development model. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice.
16(5).
Online
Reflective Practice. 2019. [Online]. Available through:< https://www.businessballs.com/self-
awareness/reflective-practice/>.