Reflective Practice in Nursing

Reflective processes help us to see the world in alternative ways by enabling us to focus on different aspects of our experiences.

Reflective processes are the stages of thoughtful activity that we need to go through when we consciously decide to explore an experience or to reflect upon it.

There are many ways in which we can reflect upon something, but before we look at one or two formal structures, we need to look at the basic ideas behind using a structure for reflection.

There are basically six fundamental stages of reflective processes and these are:

Stage 1: selecting a critical incident to reflect upon.

Stage 2: observing and describing that experience.

Stage 3: analysing that experience.

Stage 4: interpreting that experience.

Stage 5: exploring alternatives.

Stage 6: framing action.

Now any experience that we have had can be used as the focus of reflection, but what we choose to reflect upon needs to have some significance for us. That is significance in terms of what we are trying to achieve or the purpose that it is going to serve.

These significant experiences or events are often known as critical incidents.

Flanagan (1954:327) defined what he meant by critical incidents: 'By an incident is meant any observable human activity that is sufficiently complete in itself to permit inferences and predictions to be made about the person performing the act. To be critical, an incident must occur in a situation where the purpose or intent of the act seems fairly clear to the observer and when its consequences are sufficiently definite to leave little doubt concerning its effects'.

So we can see that critical incidents are episodes of experience that have particular meaning to the observer, the practitioner, or any other person taking part in them.

They may be positive or negative experiences and must be suitable for being described in a concise way (Jasper 2003).

When focusing on events involving other people, you will need to think about:

the effect that this might have on the other people involved;

gaining consent from the others involved;

the status of any written records are you might make;

confidentiality and protecting others.

When considering reflecting with others in a professional context, you need to think about:

the contextual indications of discussing things that have happened;

choosing what to tell and considering the implications of this;

working within professional codes of conduct and their implications;

the consequences of disclosure;

misconduct/malpractice/negligence;