Use of Reflective Practice in Nursing

In this essay, I will be summarizing and exploring my understanding of reflective practice. Reflective practice is the process of learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and practice (Boud et al 1985; Boyd and Fales, 1983; Mezirow, 1981, Jarvis, 1992). This generally involves examining assumptions of everyday practice. It also requires the individual practitioner to be self-aware and to critically evaluate their responses to practice situations. The point is to recapture practice experiences and think about them critically in order to gain new understandings and so improve future practice. This is understood as part of the process of life-long learning.

This process of learning from reflection brings self-awareness, gaining knowledge and enhancing communication skills, were the key learning points that I learnt within this discussion. From this discussion itself I learnt new features and ways which gave me the ability to learn how to enhance my communication skills. I have also gained knowledge from on-line discussion with members of the group who have shared their knowledge and acquiring from literature. However, this process of continuously learning gave me a deeper insight of new features and methods that allowed me to challenge myself by merely sharing knowledge within an on-line discussion.

In reflective practice, practitioners engage in a continuous cycle of self-observation and self-evaluation in order to understand their own actions and the reactions they prompt in themselves and in learners (Brookfield, 1995; Thiel, 1999). The goal is not necessarily to address a specific problem or question defined at the outset, as in practitioner research, but to observe and refine practice in gen...

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