Self-Reflection in Nursing Practice: A Reflective Essay

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................2
BODY............................................................................................................................... 3
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................... 10
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
The essay aims over self-reflection, its benefits and its importance in nursing practice
and health care profession (Silvia et al., 2011). The need of self-reflection is to be
understood by me and should be evaluated thoroughly to check the progress and
outcomes of the protocol. This essay aims at improving the relationship between self-
reflection, self-monitoring and improved client feedbacks.
Apart from this, the essay will focus on improving certain skills being a registered nurse
such as my way of communication with the patient, the way of behaving with the clients,
time management of every patient, etc.
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BODY
Self-reflection is referred to as self-assessment where an RN assesses her way of
working, behaving and various recent studies for the betterment of the stakeholder
(Yang., 2009). Reflection in health care is important because it provides a platform for
various challenges and improvising on certain practices (Silvia et al., 2011). Self-
reflection also provides a key to healthcare workers to manage and handle sensitive
issues which they may face in their practice (Silvia et al., 2011).
Reflective thinking means one should evaluate their experience and then analyze the
reasons of things which have gone well and which have gone below average. The last
step of it is to learn and encourage the changes which are needed for the betterment of
the stakeholder (Gün et al., 2010). I have to improvise my communication skills as it will
help me in being more transparent to the stakeholder. In this way, the client will also be
satisfied and I will also be able to explain the process and mechanisms to them without
any hesitation.
Apart from communication skills, the decision-making capacity is also to be focused on.
The decisions taken by me should be appropriate and should focus on the well-being of
the stakeholder.
The behavior of the professional with the stakeholder also matters when one is treating
a person. The stakeholder should be satisfied and content with the procedures ( Silvia et
al., 2011). At last the stakeholder should not have any complaints or if any complaint is
there then the nurse should take care of it and should make the patient comfortable.
PERSONAL SELF REFLECTION: self-reflection of one's thoughts, beliefs and
procedures should be done to estimate the progress of the protocol. For this purpose,
the scientists proposed various reflective theories and cycles where the concept of self-
reflection can be well understood (Silvia et al., 2011). Gibb's model of reflection is used
here to explain the self-reflection and its benefits.
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Gibbs G 1988.
The first stage reflects on what happened, how did it go, what did you do, were you
present there, etc. This is the most important stage to know and assess what happened.
The main plan and diagnosis are made after this only. The second stage relies on the
feelings of the stakeholder after the incident. The feelings of the individual before,
during and after the situation. The third situation refers to an evaluation where the
situation is thoroughly studied about all the positive and negative aspects of the
situation. The analysis is the fourth stage where an individual makes a thought about
what the situation was and how to deal with it. Then comes the stage of conclusion
where the individual thinks what other things he/she could have done. The last stage of
Gibb's reflective cycle is the action plan which indicates that if a similar situation arises
in future then what must be done to execute the plan accordingly (Mitchell et al., 2011).
According to me the areas where I have to focus to provide maximum benefit to the
stakeholder are my way of communication, my way of behavior and the decision-making
capacity at particular situations where immediate decisions if taken would have
benefitted the stakeholder and his/her family (Mitchell et al., 2011).
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I have seen that sometimes my way of communication is not so clear and due to this the
stakeholder and his/her family is unable to understand the procedure. For this, I will
have to join certain classes which focus on the spoken part of my language and the
personality development skills which will provide me the confidence to talk in front of the
stakeholders and their caregivers (Moon et al., 2013). Communication is the key to all
the solutions, the stakeholder expects the healthcare professional to communicate with
them in a manner where they can trust them and rely on further procedures (Mitchell et
al., 2011).
The way of behavior with the stakeholders is also important to be worked on because
while talking to the patient and family the nurse must be very confident and sure about
the words, actions ad deeds (Mitchell et al., 2011). How the professional behaves with
the client and the family matters a lot because the body language, expressions, and
confidence speak it all and the client can easily trust on the team and co-operate with
the staff.
Decision-making capacity of an individual must also be enhanced because at times I
also have to make some decisions on my behalf for the betterment of the stakeholder.
The decisions thus taken might be for the benefit of the client and his/her family ( Gün et
al., 2010). For an instance, a person when in a serious condition in the critical care unit,
faces some issue with the respiratory mechanisms, the nurse in charge of the patient
must be vigilant enough to shift the patient on a ventilator if the condition deteriorates
further. In this way, the decision-making capacity of professional bits of help provides
benefits to the patients.
EVALUATION: as per the recent advancements in the theory of reflection and its
various concepts, evaluation is the most important stage of reflective practice and
reflective learning. An individual is expected to evaluate all the pros and cons of the
situation, how the situation is going to get better, what will cause the situation to get
worse and the precipitating factors of the situation which will lead the condition to arise
again (Moon et al., 2013). In a similar manner utilizing evaluation, all the advantages
and disadvantages of the procedure can be understood and it can also be mentioned
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what all things have caused benefit to the patient and what have caused damage or had
no effect on him/her (Gün et al., 2010).
The most common form of evaluation is the method of using ‘5 WHYS’ from the patient
which will cover all the necessary data regarding their problem and will provide its
solution (Moon et al., 2013). This will help develop a belief and will make me understand
what all things made the patient feel comfortable and what the loopholes of the
management plan were (Mann et al., 2009).
The five questions comprise of: what do you feel favorable about the situation? What
was antagonistic about the situation? What went good? What did not go according to
your wish/thought? What did the people around you and you do to contribute to the
condition (to make it better?) these questions will make me understand about the
awareness level of the individual and the type of locality where they live (Mann et al.,
2009). The type of people with which they are surrounded is also important as the
neighbors play an important role in providing help and assistance to people when they
are in need (Self-reflection., 2015). According to Fischer, critical self-reflection is closely
attributed to the growth and development of high order thinking skills of an individual.
Critical self-reflection refers to being cognizant about the assumptions made by an
individual and dispute our thought and beliefs (Moon et al., 2013). The literature
uncovers the fact that self-reflection is needed at all the points of transition shown by an
individual.
The following stages provide an understanding of self-reflection at each stage of
transition:
The pre-transition stage, the shock and adjustment stage and the stage of progression
(Mitchell et al., 2011). The pre-transition stage helps the person built an understanding
of the transition and its necessity in the profession (Mitchell et al., 2011). The shock and
adjustment stage helps one to see the past habits and experience them and adjust as
per the society. The stage of progression gets one to progress further (Moon et al.,
2013).
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ANALYSIS: refers to develop an understanding of how an individual has perceived the
situation and what things he/she has learned from past experiences. The main aim of
the analysis is to ponder upon why the situation arose and what all things prevailed. The
sequence of incidents and the positive and negative aspects of everything are to be
analyzed here. The analysis helps to estimate the efficacy of the protocol. It helps one
understand the satisfaction levels of the stakeholder (Mitchell et al., 2011).
The reflective cycle of Gibbs emboldens people to ponder sequentially about the
experiences which they underwent during a particular condition, event or activity
(Lestander et al., 2016). Gibbs cycle of reflection helps the person analyze the
condition, the reasons due to which such circumstances occurred, how to prevent such
conditions, what is the best possible way to manage such situations (Davies et al.,
2012). The situation needs to be thoroughly examined and should be studied in detail
so that the clue can be taken out of it, why such a thing happened (Husebø et al.,
2015).
As I have issues in my communication skills, my way of behaving with the patient and
my decision-making capacity. The stage of analysis has helped me get through my
weaknesses, and make me work over my weaknesses to deal with the stakeholder and
make sure about the treatment procedure and the progress of the stakeholder (Dettmer
et al., 2009). Self-analysis helped me understand my way of communication and
highlighted the negative aspects of my communication skills. Sometimes I used to talk
in a very confused manner which made a very bad impact over the stakeholders and
their families (Davies et al., 2012). This part of my communication affected my behavior
also due to which there developed a communication gap between me and my
stakeholders and their families.
The decision-taking capacities matter a lot when it comes to a patient. There are some
times when my decisions of are to be given priority and so here I fail to take decisions.
The failure in taking decisions at right time proves to be disadvantageous for the client.
In this way, the method of self-analysis, help me understand my weaknesses and work
upon it to improve them (Chong et al., 2009).
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STRATEGIES FOR PRACTICE: there is a need to implement certain strategies which
will help improve the condition of the RN. To improve the communication skills the I
must join the classes which will enhance the speaking skills and the way of behavior
with the stakeholders and their families (Beam et al., 2010). The personality
development classes will also help me improve my way of talking, body language,
confidence levels and other skills which a healthcare professional should have.
The decision-making capacity should be improved by critical thinking and by logical
reasoning aspects of cases (Brookfield et al.,2009). The logical aspect of thinking will
help me understand the diversified type of cases and will develop a different level of
mentality and attitude towards making decisions (Bass et al., 2017). The decision
making should be fast and precise enough so that all the nook and corners of the
situation are covered and a particular solution for it is devised.
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CONCLUSION
The concept of critical self-reflection is an advantage in the field of healthcare. The
professionals working under it evaluate themselves and the management done by them
and provide a reasonable answer for each and every step followed by them (Dettmer et
al., 2009).
Thus critical self-reflection helps one understand the condition thoroughly and work over
it to provide maximum benefit to the client (Bass et al., 2017). The essay deals with the
stages of Gibb’s reflective cycle where every stage has a detailed study to understand
the loopholes of the protocol and work to mend them and get best out of it (Boud et al.,
2013).
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REFERENCES
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