What Is Reflection in Nursing - Essay Example

Two major themes of nursing obligation return to the work of Florence Nightingale, administrator, statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale's foundational views of nursing included the development of healing environments as a nursing responsibility and nurses' obligations to protect patient confidentiality. Both themes point to the ethics of institutional and social obligations as well as obligations to individual patients. These themes are juxtaposed in current discussions of ethics in nursing and in today's debates about the value foundations of reforming the delivery of health care.

A resurgence of more explicit attention to ethics in research, education, and nursing practice emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s. In the late 1970s ethics in nursing began to emphasize advocacy for individual patients, respect for patient autonomy and promotion of patients' rights in health care institutions, a search for more autonomy in nursing practice, and the development of a more holistic approach to nursing care. Individual autonomy was a major item on the ethics agenda in nursing, as it was in much of medical ethics.

What is a reflection in nursing? (Reference)

There are many definitions of reflection mainly of them agree that reflection is a vigorous, conscious procedure (Dewey 1993; Boud 1985; Schon 1987; and Reid 1993)

Reflection is usually used when the practitioner comes across a problem in practice and tries to make sense of it (Ghaye and Lillyman 1997).

Dewey (1933) defined reflection as:

“'An active persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusion to which it tends.'” (p.9)

Where did it come from?

It is also noted in the Nursing Standard that Dewey is acknowledged as the first educationalist to right about reflection and learning through experience (Atkins and Murphy 1994).

How did it get into nursing?

According to the expert analysis, reflection on the association of ethics in the nursing profession and present efforts to improve health care is a kaleidoscope of diverse pieces and patterns. Present improvement efforts at the central and state levels point to nursing's social mandate to assist serve society's wellbeing in the areas of health and sickness mind. since ethics in nursing has traditionally restricted themes of reformation of institutional and expert values, responsibilities, relations, and power by means of a goal of assuring patient welfare, the nursing vocation can look to its past for the ethical capital it will require as it participates in the in attendance instant of health care reform.

How did it get into reflective practice?

Reflection and reflective practice is not a new idea and not only nursing professionals use reflection.  It wasn't brought about to confuse or make a practitioner's life difficult.  It has been around for a long time and Dewey (1933) was the one person who is known to have brought the reflective practice into his work (Ghaye and Lillyman 1997).