COMM 135 Assignment: Reflective Journals and Healthcare

This report, prepared for COMM 135, examines the concepts of reflective practice and critical thinking within the healthcare field. It begins by defining and discussing reflective practice, emphasizing its role in forming judgments and improving healthcare practices. The report then defines critical thinking, highlighting its importance in analyzing information and making informed decisions. The core of the report explores the significance of both reflective practice and critical thinking for healthcare professionals, supported by scholarly literature. Part B of the assignment focuses on a reflective journal, describing its style and presenting a personal reflective journal entry that reflects on the challenges of balancing school, work, and personal life. The report concludes by summarizing the benefits of reflective practice and critical thinking in fostering self-awareness and enhancing performance in various aspects of life. The report includes references to scholarly articles to support the arguments presented.

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTHCARE 0
Communication of health care February 29
2020

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Introduction
Reflective practice gives information about situations that help in forming a judgment
and later helps in dealing with the situation (Hawkins & Shohet, 2012). Below given discussion
will help in understanding the concept of reflective practice. These discussions will express the
importance of reflective practice in the healthcare field. Later this report will analyse critical
thinking. Critical thinking provides an understanding of the situation or event that later helps in
forming a judgment. This report also includes a reflective journal that explains the life of a
student at school. A student has to maintain a balance between school life, work-life, and
personal life.
Reflective practice
In the words of Silverman and Casazza, reflection involves a test of the unseen
expectations of both the reflector and persons in the surrounding. Reflection practice is a simple
reflection that could be a review of the actions in the light of the acknowledged guideline it
needs the reflector to review long-held traditions of the behaviour by looking further than the
behaviour itself to their self-image and inspecting why they do what they do (Boateng & Boadi,
2015).
In simple words, reflective practice can be castoff to benefit nurses to build a sense of
work circumstances and eventually improve care (Horton-Deutsch & Sherwood, 2017).
Reflection exercise is a significant skill for nurses. Engaging in consistent reflection enables
nurses to manage the personal and professional effect of addressing their patient's initial health
and wellbeing requirements day-to-day.
Reflective practice can be explained as the procedure of making sense of events,
situations, and actions that occur in the effort place (Sandberg & Tsoukas, 2015). In hospitals
and mental health hospitals, nurses have essential roles in addressing basic human needs related
to the physical and mental wellbeing of the patients and service users.
Reflective practice allows a person or practitioner to draw personal experience and
memories, helps people in tackling difficult situations, sometimes helps in answering technical

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questions to oneself for clarity. This practice helps a person grow on a personal and professional
level.
Critical thinking
According to Peter facione, determined, the self-regulatory conclusion that results in
clarification, analysis, estimation, and interpretation, as well as a description of the evidential,
theoretical, or contextual considerations upon which the judgment is based is critical thinking
(Facione, 2013). In the words of Mulnix, critical thinking contains a pledge to using reason in the
formulation of our opinions (MULNIX, 2013).
In easy words, critical thinking is the study of facts that form a judgment (Fisher, 2011).
It is the process of independently study, synthesizing, and evaluating information as a leader to
behaviour and beliefs. Critical thinking is a vital tool for inquiry. It is a liberating force in
education and powerful resource in one's personal and civic life. Critical thinking is done to
make up one's mind about what to believe and what not to believe. When a person engages in
the thinking and is trying to fulfil objectives such as accuracy and appropriates to the thinking.
Critically thinking is a fairly systematic method of defining a problem and studying about
it that will create a perspective (Paul & Elder, 2019). Perceptive will help in developing new
ideas.
Importance of reflective practice and critical thinking
Reflection and critical thinking help adults learn and grow as a human being. Critical
thinking and reflection gives a better and deeper understanding of issues and helps in developing
the judgment (Moore, 2013). Critical thinking involves organizing and analysing information.
This analysis and understanding of the situation give self-understanding and helps students
understand themselves (Rees, 2013).
Reflective practice is something most people first encounter at university. It would have
been a reflection on patient care or other personal experience. Critical thinking includes skills
such as verify, interpret, and ability to understand better (Lai, 2011). These elements help nurses
to understand to case better and make a better judgment.

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To understand professional life it is essential to keep a balance on personal life.
Reflective practice and critical thinking help in understanding oneself that helps people to keep
personal life and professional in balance. People often fail to say what they feel because they are
not clear about critical situations. Reflective practice and critical thinking benefits in handling
tough situations.
Reflective journal
Yes, it is challenging as I expected. I discovered that even the simplest things on earth
could be twisted into something astonishing if we put originality and effort into it. Teachers
helped me reflect on my dreams and skills. The school was a little different from my
expectations. My imagination about school was a comfortable space where I will learn and
explore new things. I just imagined classrooms, playgrounds, and a comfortable environment.
Critical thinking gave me a better understanding of the school. I expected this nursing program
will be challenging,
There were a few challenges that I faced returning to school. I observed the biggest issue
that came up for me was money and fitting into a busy schedule. Managing school, assignments,
and work at the same time is difficult. I learned going back to school as an adult is difficult. I had
to quit my part-time job to focus on school. I had to ask my sister to buy me groceries. Both my
parents don't work. I have applied for bursary hoping that I will get one to finish my semester. I
learned that challenges come but it is your actions that make your life easy or hard.
While returning to school I observed that schedules were tight and not just me everyone
had to deal with it. This is the reason I decided on making special changes in my life to perform
better in school. For being an effective student I decided to quit my job. I decided to write
everything down to stay organized. The second change that I made is to make a rough weekly
schedule and everyday schedule for understanding the time I have and the time I need for myself.
Also, I decided to develop a habit of full focus on one job instead of multitasking.
Balancing school life, work-life, and personal life was difficult. But little efforts helped
me in managing my life. I decided to plan my schedule so that I will know what urgent tasks I
have and what tasks can wait a little bit. Little stress was helping me keeping a focus on my

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study routine but when stress level increases it starts demotivating. Facing problems instead of
just letting it go will help in maintaining the balance in work, school, and personal life.
It is extremely hard to deal with money crises. Managing study routines, class schedules,
and assignments at the same time are already very stressful. It was externally challenging to
manage all the activities with suffering from financial crises. At times it is difficult to ask for
money from sisters or friends. Dealing with all this at once is stressful and exhausting. I have
realized one day all this hard work will let me live a better life.
Conclusion
Reflective practice and critical thinking help in understanding one-self. It gives emotional
awareness that provides a path to reach the end goal. It also helps in maintaining a balance
between work, studies, and personal life. In summary, reflection and critical thinking benefit
individuals in understanding the events and situations. The process of understanding feelings is
essential for better performance in every aspect of life. Also when one understands the feelings
and emotions correctly they feel stable and get success in life.

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References
Boateng, J., & Boadi, C. (2015). Evaluating Teachers of Adult Learners in Reflective Practice.
College of Education.
Facione, P. A. (2013). Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts. Insight assessment, 23-
28.
Fisher, A. (2011). Critical thinking: An introduction. Cambridge University Press.
Hawkins, P., & Shohet, R. (2012). Supervision in the helping professions. UK: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Horton-Deutsch, S., & Sherwood, G. (2017). Reflective practice: Transforming education and
improving outcomes. Sigma Theta Tau.
Lai, E. R. (2011). Critical thinking: A literature review. Pearson's Research Reports, 40-41.
Moore, T. (2013). Critical thinking: Seven definitions in search of a concept. Studies in Higher
Education, 506-522.
MULNIX, J. (2013). Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking. Educational Philosophy and
Theory, 464-479.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2019). The miniature guide to critical thinking concepts and tools.
Rowman & Littlefield.
Rees, K. L. (2013). The role of reflective practices in enabling final year nursing students to
respond to the distressing emotional challenges of nursing work. Nurse Education in
Practice, 48-52.
Sandberg, J., & Tsoukas, H. (2015). Making sense of the sensemaking perspective: Its
constituents, limitations, and opportunities for further development. Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 6-32.

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