Reflective Practice in Nursing - Essay Example

Reflective Practice in Nursing Introduction Being a professional nurse, one needs to develop the habit of reflection. Reflective practice focuses on one’s actions and skills to be able to meet the demands of patients, colleagues and professional bodies. Being accountable for one’s own learning and self-development, a professional nurse is relentless in improving weaknesses and turning them into strengths. This leads one to be more self-aware so he or she can develop further in professionalism. This essay is about reflective practice in the areas of communication, team working and health care ethics in the nursing profession. It will make use of Schon’s reflection model. Schon’s theory outlines two different types of reflection that occur at different time phases: reflection on action (Schon 1983) and reflection in action (Schon 1983). ‘Reflection in action’ is often referred to the colloquial phrase as ‘thinking on your feet’ a term used to being able to assess ourselves within a situation, making appropriate changes and still keeping a steady flow in the process. Reflection on action is when reflection occurs after the event. This is where the practitioner makes a deliberate and conscious attempt to act and reflect upon a situation and how it should be handled in the future (Loughran 1996). Main body Communication Skills: Body language (Active listening or empathy and compassion) Nursing practitioners deal with various kinds of people every day, hence they should develop effective communication skills. Timmins (2011) contends that nursing competencies should include knowledge of building “therapeutic partnerships with their patients and colleagues through safe, effective and non-discriminatory communication, taking account of individual differences, capabilities and needs” (p. 31). This means that they should be resourceful enough in conveying their messages through verbal, non-verbal and written forms to be understood and also also understand people’s needs better. Being adept in active listening and empathic skills as well as reading and expressing non-verbal communication promote the safety and well-being of patients and is most likely to achieve the best outcomes. Team Working Nurses who are new are yet to develop enough confidence to handle a patient. It would be very beneficial to them to partner with a more experienced nurse so that they learn in a more serious manner. In order to provide safe patient care, nurses team together with one of the individuals having more advanced nursing skills and the other one needing a good mentor. It was found in several studies that there are special forms in team nursing that should be adopted in order to provide safe patient care using a mix of diverse skills (Walker 2002). Upon reflection, it would be worthy to think up of how such diverse skill set is prioritized without compromising anyone. Apart from working with their nurse colleagues in teams, nurses are now also teaming up with multidisciplinary professionals. Rose (2011) argues, though, that there are several barriers that can threaten the success of interprofessional collaboration which includes problematic power dynamics, poor communication, poor understanding of roles and limits and variety in approaches to patient care (Sheenan et al., 2007; Delva et al., 2008; Suter et al., 2009). It has been identified that the issues of power, control, knowledge and status become prevalent in such collaborations (McCallin, 2001). However, if the team can overcome such issues and set aside pride to prioritize the patient’s well-being, team working can prove to be successful in delivering better quality care and reducing risk to patients (Rathert and Fleming 2008). New nurses should learn to be open to team working and sharing of ideas and tasks with another partner or team members. This does not mean that they will have easier tasks because work is divided, but it means they work harder to collaborate their efforts in helping patients to heal faster. As a reflection, nurses should not only be good with patients but should learn how to work as a team member. Health care Ethics Nurses should be meticulous in caring for their patients within ethical boundaries. The reported UK reports of unethical treatment of patients at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust with many patients suffering and dying in the hands of unprofessional healthcare practitioners have been scandalous, bringing to fore the reality that speed, task-focused care and quantitative measures have been prioritized over quality care for patients (Gallagher, 2013). Health care practitioners are in a more delicate position in their field because they deal with human lives and one wrong move may cause them their licenses as legal action may be done against them. Hence, they should always ensure that they are following strict standard operating procedures of their health care facility. Being knowledgeable in health care ethics helps them justify what is correct and appropriate professional conduct (Iglesias & Vallejo, 2014). It is more recommendable to be slow but sure in the delivery of quality healthcare than fast and risky (Gallagher, 2013). During one’s delivery of care, nurses should be reflective on how they treated patients. Were they courteous enough? Did they allow the patient privacy? Do they maintain a professional distance especially in keeping information that does not relate to them? If not, how could they do better tomorrow? Conclusion This essay discussed how nurses can be more reflective in the performance of their duties and tasks specifically in the areas of communication, team working and health care ethics. It described how Schon’s reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action theories can guide nurses in evaluating themselves and their performance especially when they treat patients. They will still encounter so many more patient cases that they should start reflective practice now, if not way back, so that they are better equipped to face any nursing challenge that can come their way. References Delva, D., Jamiesin, M., Lemieux, M. (2008) Team effectiveness in academic primary health care teams, Journal of Interprofessional Care, 22: 598-611. Gallagher, A. (2013) Slow ethics: A sustainable approach to ethical care practices?, Clinical Ethics, 8(4) 98–104. Loughran, J.J. (1996) Developing reflective practice: learning about teaching and learning through modeling. Routledge, McCallin, A. (2001). Intedisciplinary practice – a matter of teamwork: an integrated literature review, Journal of Clinical Nursing; 10: 419-428. Rathert, C. and Fleming, D.A. (2008). Hospital ethical climate and teamwork in acute care: the moderating role of leaders. Health Care Management Review, 33(4):323‑331. Rose, L. (2011) Interprofessional collaboration in the ICU: how to define?, Nursing in Critical Car, 16 (1) 5-10. Schön, D. A.(1983) The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books. Sheehan, D., Robertson, L., Ormond, T. (2007) Comparison of language used and patterns of communication in interprofessional and multidisciplinary teams, Journal of Interprofessional Care, 21: 17-30. Suter, E., Arndt, J., Arthur, N., Parboosingh, J, Taylor, E. Deutschlander, S. (2009). Role understanding and effective communication as core competencies for collaborative practice. Journal of Interprofessional Care; 23: 41-51. Timmins, F. (2011) Managers’ duty to maintain good workplace communication skills, Nursing Management, 18 (3), 30-34. Walker, K. (2002). Project possibility: A model of care and the politics of change. Contemporary Nurse, 14 (1):86‑94. Read More