Annotated Bibliography on the Usefulness of Reflection in Nursing

This annotated bibliography examines the usefulness of reflection in nursing practice, drawing on two key articles. The first article explores the impact of reflective practice on nursing care, highlighting the importance of reflection on action, in action, and self-discovery. It emphasizes how reflective practice enables nurses to connect theory with practice and improve clinical judgment. The second article focuses on the different levels of reflection and provides a framework for nurses to understand and incorporate these levels into their practice. It emphasizes the benefits of seeking mentorship to plan reflective practice effectively. The author, a nursing student, reflects on the insights gained from both articles, emphasizing the importance of a structured approach to reflection, including seeking mentor guidance and maintaining a reflective journal to track progress and plan future practice. The author aims to improve their clinical reasoning skills, patient-centered care, and overall nursing competence by applying the principles of reflective practice.

Running head: USEFULNESS OF REFLECTION IN THE NURSING PRACTICE
Usefulness of reflection in the nursing practice
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author note:
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Annotated bibliography:
Article 1:
The parts of the bibliography
entry
1 Purpose of Article
A short clear statement
of the purpose of this
article
This paper attempts to explore and analyze the impact of
application of reflective practice in the various sectors of
the nursing care scenario and how it can be made visible
and understandable, while utilizing some theoretical
underpinnings.
2 Summary
An accurate, succinct
account of the ideas,
theories, research
findings or arguments
used in the article
The article discovered three different aspects of
implementation of reflection in the nursing practice, reflection
on action, reflection in action and reflection as self-
discovering.
3 Appraisal &
Usefulness
Comments on the
importance, strengths,
or limitations (informed
by your review and
This paper has very effectively integrated the importance of
reflective practice in the profession of nursing and how it can
be make a visible difference in the outcome of the care
approaches. The reflection activity of this article helped them
revisit and ponder upon all their flaws, if helped them learn
from their mistakes and keep track of their progress. However,
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analysis or evaluation of
the article).
Clearly explains the
potential usefulness (or
not) of the article to
support the topic: How
nurses can use
reflective practice to
promote safe, caring,
quality nursing care.
OR nurse-patient
communication
a drawback that has to be mentioned regarding this article is
the lack of well synthesized and structured dissemination of
the information.
4 Citation
Full citation of the
journal article that you
annotated the same
format that you will use
on the reference list
page (APA style)
Carina Berterö, R. N. T. (2010). Reflection in and on nursing
practices-how nurses reflect and develop knowledge and skills
during their nursing practice. International Journal of Caring
Sciences, 3(3), 85.
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Summary of the article:
The author in this article has utilized secondary data analysis for the purpose of
understanding and the impact of reflection in the nursing care scenario and making the impact
easily visible and understandable. The entire focus of the data analysis has been discovering the
visible effects of the reflection in the practice standards of the nurses and making the reflective
practice conspicuous in the practice scenario. It has to be mentioned in this context that the
psychological burden of death is often a great impact on their psyche and clinical judgement as
well. One of the greatest challenges that were brought forth by this negative impact can be the
fact that the nurses were no longer able to verbalize their accomplishments, but could share when
they did not perform well. This article focussed from the very beginning on the aspects of
learning by doing, integrating this concept in their study design helped to discover marked
improvement in the clinical judgment and decision making of the nurses, in acute or palliative
care scenarios. It has focussed on the experience of the nursing individuals working in the
palliative wards, in cancer units. In some cases the nurses were discovered to make good caring
decisions based on intuition and in some cases based on their experience. The insight of the
nursing decision-making tools, listening and understanding, information, the clinical eye and
availability, and how they can be incorporated in the case scenario with the help of reflective
practice to improve care outcomes will be a fertile ground for further research (Carina Berterö,
2010).The only difficulty that nurses had had been to verbalize this data due to the silent
knowledge. However, the article discovered that using the reflective practice can help in
enabling the nurses to link theory with practice effectively and incorporate theoretical
underpinnings in practice so that the nursing practice theories and protocols are not taken for
granted (Carina Berterö, 2010)
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Article 2:
The parts of the bibliography
entry
1 Purpose of Article
A short clear statement
of the purpose of this
article
This study reflects on the identification of how identifying and
incorporating different levels of reflection can help the
nursing professionals achieve better care outcomes and
can help in improving the skills and competences.
2 Summary
An accurate, succinct
account of the ideas,
theories, research
findings or arguments
used in the article
This article explored a very important aspect in reflection,
understanding the need behind different levels of reflection,
providing a very easily applicable step by step framework for
every practicing nurse to employee.
3 Appraisal &
Usefulness
Comments on the
importance, strengths,
or limitations (informed
by your review and
analysis or evaluation of
the article).
The nurses were give the opportunity to subdivide the rather
complex process of reflection into three interdependent steps, that
help them understand the different aspects they need to reflect
upon and how it would benefit them in broadening their practice
scope in the future. This research article is one of the first
initiatives to acknowledge reflection as a complex phenomenon
and provided an easy to use and effective framework; which when
used by the nurses with the help to their mentors yielded visible
benefits (Price, 2017).
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Clearly explains the
potential usefulness (or
not) of the article to
support the topic: How
nurses can use
reflective practice to
promote safe, caring,
quality nursing care.
OR nurse-patient
communication
4 Citation
Full citation of the
journal article that you
annotated the same
format that you will use
on the reference list
page (APA style)
Price, B. (2017). Improving nurses' level of
reflection. Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great
Britain): 1987), 32(1), 52-63.
Summary of the article:
It has to be mentioned in this context that for any reflective practice to be effective and
optimally successful, the individuals engaging in the reflective practice must understand the
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purpose of reflection profoundly. Reflection is undoubtedly intuition based, but the strategic
implementation is successful when the nurses have a clear foresight regarding what they aim to
achieve. This article focussed on facilitating the nursing professional so that they are able to
distinguish between lower and higher levels of reflection and how they can incorporate it in their
own practice for improving the quality of the care. The entire research had been subdivided in
three steps; the first step emphasized on the clarifying the purpose of reflection to the
individuals. The next step helped to understand different levels of reflection, utilizing different
reflection models like the Mezirow’s seven levels of reflection was utilized to facilitate the
process. The next step was evaluation of the written reflection by the mentors. This step was
further subdivided into 4 stages. The mentors motivated the employees, helped them learn to
question their quality of work, encouraged the development of critical thinking in the nurses and
helped the nurses their future scope of practice in 4 interlinked stages. As a result the nursing
professionals were able to engage in better reflective practice which not only helped them
improve their performance but also helped them plan for their future practice better (Price,
2017). It had to be mentioned that this article had provided a highly useful framework for the al
professional health care providers to recognize the need for reflection effectively, and recignize
to what level of reflection they themselves have performed in their practice and how they can
move to higher level of reflection with the help of their mentors depending on their needs and
competence.
Reflection:
The need for reflect on one’s practice as a nurse has become a potent tool in enhancing
competences and helping the nursing individuals to become equipped with the clinical reasoning
skills that will help them prove accurate patient centred care to the patients. I would like to
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mention that here that although the process of reflection is considered to be a very simple
activity, I have found myself to often be puzzled without a proper framework. Apart from just
the writing the reflective journals, the new graduate nurses transitioning into practice often do
not understand the process of reflection and the different steps of reflection with clarity. The first
article under consideration helped me understand the impact of reflection and its three different
domains. It has to be mentioned that for any reflective practice to be effective, it is extremely
important for the reflection to be pertinent for both in action and in self discovery. This article
has emphasized on silent knowledge and how it can be more effectively implemented in the
practice scenario with the help reflection on action, in action and during self discovery.
On the other hand, the second article had been focussed on nursing professionals discovering
the different levels of reflection and which level is the most suitable for different scenario can
help optimizing the individual benefits of the reflection procedure. Elaborating more, this article
has not only helped me to distinguish between lower and higher level of reflection. And along
with that it has helped to understand how to transition from lower to higher level of reflection
with the aid of my mentors. Both of the articles helped me understand the purpose of my
reflective practice most importantly and helped me identify the different levels of reflection and
the different aspects of my work that I need to reflect upon in my practice. Along with that, the
articles also helped me understand the benefits of seeking help from my mentors to plan my
reflective practice to a framework so that it can eventually help me progress systematically in my
future practice career as a nurse. I would first and foremost consult with my mentor to
understand my shortcomings and my strengths while reflecting on my practice standards and the
quality of care I provide. Based on the discussion sessions that I undergo with my mentor I will
attempt to subdivide my reflection sessions into different steps so that each and every need for
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improvement can be identified and addressed by me. Lastly, I will maintain a thorough journal
entry of my reflective practice to keep a track of my progress and to plan out my future practice
efficiently.
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