The Role of the Student in Higher Education - Essay Example

The Role of the Student in Higher Education Introduction In nursing, reflection is a very important skill as it helps student nurses to be able to retain the material that they are taught. Reflective practice can be described as the process of seeking to fully comprehend and make sense of events and actions that a person comes across in his or her workplace. In nursing, reflection allows for student nurses to be able to comprehensively understand medical practices while working in a pressurised and busy environment. The Gibb’s reflection model is particularly efficient for student nurses. Its stages include those of description, consideration of feelings, evaluation, and analysis. Learning by Reflection In nursing, the Gibbs reflection model seeks to understand the feelings that were experienced, and also allows for the evaluation of an incident in terms of what was bad or good about it (Wilding 2008). The Gibbs model also includes an analysis of the critical nursing situation and then the suggestion of an action plan that will deal with the issue if it should arise again (Curzon 2003). According to (Hinchiff 2004), reflection is particularly important for student nurses because they work in environments in which they have to perform numerous tasks almost without thinking about them previously. Being compelled to work swiftly among emotionally and physically wounded people can affect the student nurses. Engaging on reflective practices allows for the student nurses to be able to deal with the reality of being exposed to human anxieties and needs on a daily basis (Watson 2008). This is important because nurses will not be able to function well if they are stressed from being forced to deal with people when they are most vulnerable. Reflection allows for student nurses to be able to develop self-awareness among other interpersonal skills that make them more effective in their nursing duties (NMC 2011). Reflection also helps student nurses to be able to understand ways in which they can better improve their services to their patients (Stuart 2007). For student nurses, reflection thus changes a situation which previously may have been filled with doubt, anxiety, and conflict into being one which is manageable (Price 2004). Description: In considering the situation that he or she is in, the student nurse is able to consider the ways in which she can approach her patients or even plan on studying patterns. Feelings: The student nurse is able to reflect on positive or negative feelings that he or she may be experiencing in regards to the studying practices that he or she has adopted or even regards to patients assigned. The student nurse can then make decisions based on that assessment in order to rectify the situation or at least make it manageable (Johns and Freshwater 2005). Evaluation: once the student nurse understands the feelings that he or she has in regards to definite situations, he or she will be in a better position to make decisions on how to solve or amend the situation so that it is more manageable. Analysis: After making an evaluation and deciding about the best way in which to progress, the student nurse is then able to make decision about the existing situation(s). Different student nurses use the Gibb’s reflective model in different ways to ease their studies as well as responsibilities within medical facilities (Johns and Freshwater 2005). Many student nurses make use of journals in which they make entries detailing the situations they are working with and how they feel and plan to manage them. This also helps the student nurses in their learning experiences. For example, if a student nurse comes across a new medical procedure or fairly rare disease, she can record her own feelings about the first time that she saw it and her gut reactions about what caused it. She will then, after writing about her own first feelings about it, can add what she discovered about it on consulting a textbook. She can then compare her findings and her first feelings about what she saw and thought about the disease or procedure with what the text book says and record her thoughts about this. Many student nurses find that their clinical differences are quite different from those of their colleagues. They also discover that some times, to their surprise, the text books have different symptoms for diseases than what they actually find. Experiencing ‘real’ situations is often quite a different experience from reading about it in text books (Price 2004). Reflecting about such experiences helps a student nurse to better understand how she or he feels about them. Using the Gibb’s Reflective Model Student nurses do not just learn from what they read in their textbooks; or by being exposed to patients on a regular basis (Hand 2006). To understand a subject in depth, a person has to critically examine the situation at hand. When the process of learning is conducted by means of reflection, the individual in question gains a deeper understanding of the subject and its structural process (Taylor 2003b). Through the Gibb’s model, nurses are able to comprehend the description of the situation, analysis it, evaluate their experience in dealing with the situation, and then contribute towards making the analysis of the underlying problem. The Gibbs reflective cycle also facilitates for student nurses to be able to come up with an action plan (Taylor 2004). The Gibb’s reflective cycle allows for student nurses who use it to be able to critically think about their experiences even as they go through different stages of treating patients or studying. Due to the fact that student nurses using the Gibb’s cycle are also able to think in depth about the things that they are doing at work, reflection also helps them to enhance their quality of work in medical facilities. Reflection allows student nurses to view things from an objective perspective. When they first meet patients, or take on new cases, it is very easy for student nurses to become emotional as they are being confronted with new feelings about the existing patient and situation. When they take time later to think critically about the case, they may find that they think differently about the case due to the fact that they have put some distance between it and themselves. Reflection also allows student nurses to be able to apply what they learnt about one case to other similar cases; thus causing them to be more efficient. Lastly, reflection allows for student nurses to be able to identify areas in which there is a need for the requirements of the nurses to be addressed. Reflecting allows for one to be able to observe places where there are improvements are needed while improving the student nurse’s professional judgment References Curzon, L.B. (2003) Teaching in further education, Cassell, London. Hand, H. (2006) ‘Assessment of learning clinical practice’, Nursing standard, vol. 21, no. 4, p. 49. Hinchiff, S. (2004) The practitioner as teacher, Churchill, Livingstone, London. Johns, C. & Freshwater, D. (2005) Transforming nursing through reflective practice, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. NMC. (2011) Guidance on professional conduct, NMC, London. Price, B. (2004) ‘Mentoring learners in practice’, Nursing Standard, vol. 18, no. 52. Stuart, C.C. (2007) Assessment, supervision and support in clinical practice, Elsevier: Churchill Livingstone, London. Taylor, B. (2003b) ‘Issues and innovations in nursing education - narrating practice: reflective accounts and the textual construction of reality’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 42, no. 3, p. 244. Taylor, B. (2004) ‘Technical, practical and emancipatory reflection for practising holistically’, Journal of Holistic Nursing, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 73-84. Watson, R. (2008) ‘Is there a role for higher education in preparing nurses?’ Nurse Education Today, vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 622-626. Wilding, P. (2008) ‘Reflective practice: a learning tool for student nurses’, British Journal of Nursing, vol. 17, no. 11, pp. 720-724. Read More