{"id":1098,"date":"2017-01-30T16:21:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T16:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2017-01-30T17:28:51","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T17:28:51","slug":"the-power-of-reflection-in-nursing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/2017\/01\/30\/the-power-of-reflection-in-nursing\/","title":{"rendered":"The power of reflection in nursing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lizzie Ette. Lecturer in Nursing, The University of Hull<\/p>\n

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This week\u2019s EBN Twitter Chat is on Wednesday 1st\u00a0February between 8-9 pm (UK time).<\/p>\n

The chat will be led by Lizzie Ette (j.ette@hull.ac.uk<\/a> ), Lecturer in Pre-registration Nursing, The University of Hull.<\/p>\n

Participating in the Twitter chat requires a Twitter account; if you do not have one you can create an account at\u00a0www.twitter.com<\/a>. Once you have an account, contributing is straightforward. You can follow the discussion by searching links to\u00a0#ebnjc<\/a>, or contribute by creating and sending a tweet (tweets are text messages limited to 140 characters) to @EBNursingBMJ adding\u00a0#ebnjc<\/a>\u00a0(the EBN Twitter chat hash tag) to your tweet, this allows everyone taking part to view your tweets<\/p>\n

The power of reflection in nursing<\/strong><\/p>\n

As is so often the case, professional and personal lives are intricately related, and the recent experience of losing our family cat Reggie, following a road traffic accident at Christmas, really got me to reconsider the power of reflection on a personal level, and this got me thinking deeply about how important reflection is in my professional capacity, as a nurse.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0Reggie: 2000-2017<\/p>\n

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Caring for Reg as I did in his last days of life was a positive experience and looking back I feel confident that I did a good job in caring for our lovely old cat. Unfortunately, my experience of supporting three young children through the demise of their much loved pet was not quite so successful. I had no experience to draw on here and found myself feeling pretty self \u2013critical of my actions. However, having now spent some time reflecting and reading related material online, I realised how much it taught me about how different my children\u2019s needs are from my own, and from one another\u2019s. I can acknowledge how I would now do things differently. Sadly, only when we have another bereavement of some sort can I get to test out my new learning, that all-important step of doing things better next time.<\/p>\n

Boud et al. (1985, p.19) offer a simple definition of reflection,<\/p>\n

\u2018Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull over & evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning\u2019.<\/p>\n

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The importance of reflection<\/a> in nursing cannot be understated. It can be used on many levels; to reflect on a specific incident, a moment in time even, and the actions, thoughts and feelings associated with that moment, or can be used to help create an understanding of a more general time period, by breaking down, considering, analysing and critiquing the who, what, why, when and how of the events of that time ( Gibbs (1988),<\/a>; Johns (1995)<\/a> ; Driscoll (2007)<\/a> ). It can be used to reflect on situations as they occur – reflection in action<\/em> – and on events from the past – reflection on action<\/em> (Sch\u00f6n, 1983). Additionally, it can be used to recognise new skills and articulate planned new approaches. All of these mechanisms are thought to improve a nurse\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n

However, some are critical of reflective practice in its current form. Rolfe (2014), for example, argues that reflective practice has had a disappointing impact upon nurse education and practice, suggesting that it is the poor interpretation and implementation of reflective practice that has resulted in this lack of progress. Likewise, Nelson (2012) suggests that the present wide acceptance of \u2018institutionally governed\u2019 reflection is ironic given Sch\u00f6n and other\u2019s original intentions for the use of reflection.<\/p>\n

Despite this, reflection does indeed form a major element of nurses\u2019 ability to renew their professional registration (revalidation). The NMC states that for successful revalidation…<\/p>\n

“You must have prepared five written reflective accounts in the three year period since your registration was last renewed or you joined the register. Each reflective account must be recorded on the approved form and must refer to:<\/p>\n