Reflective_Practice_.. - Vince Saliba

Important
EN to SN Conversion Course
Professional Development Module
Intake 19
Individual assignment for assessment of second semester is to be handed in by
the end of the second Month of the Third semester (30 th April 2010 - word limit
between 1,500 and 2,000 words).
Describe an experience/critical incident drawn from your clinical practice. Take time to
consider and reflect upon the influencing factors of this experience. Keeping in mind the
requisites for reflection, write an assignment which shows the utilization of reflective
practice as a source for self-criticism and expansion of personal knowledge to improve
patient care holistically.
Guidelines on how you should go about your assignment:
You are advised to read the handouts on reflective practice given to you by your lecturer
on the topic. Extra reading and research is expected to support your arguments. In your
own personal experience and based on what you will read on reflective practice, you
think of a significant experience that illustrates when you got stuck or did not consider
the experience as ‘desirable’ practice. You describe your own experience and then you
have to reflect upon the influencing factors of this experience to be able to discuss what
was learned to improve patient care.
Lecturer: Mr Ray Grixti
Subject co-ordinators: Miss. Marisa Vella & Ms. Maria Sciberras
Emails: marisa.l.vella@gov.mt
maria.sciberras@gov.mt

Guidelines to help you through the reflective process in order to work on your
assignment
Identifying the experience
The first step in the reflective process is to identify an incident or experience of some
kind that you feel you could benefit from reflecting on. This is called a ‘critical incident’.
The intention is not to identify incompetent practice, but to provide a ‘snapshot’ of
practice at a key moment in order to promote the nurse’s learning and professional
development. The incident you choose to focus on does not have to be a major disaster.
A Critical Incident or a Significant could be:
• An incident in which you feel your intervention would or have really made a
difference to the care of the patient or client
• An incident that did not go well even though you had expected to
• An incident that highlights the ‘ordinary and everyday’ practice of nursing or your
role
• An incident that you feel highlight ‘what nursing is all about’
• An incident that was particularly demanding and stretched your skills as a nurse.
Describing the Experience
It seems self-evident that the next step needs to be a description of the incident. However,
this can be more difficult than it would seem because of the ‘taken for granted’ nature of
much of nursing practice, so it is important to be clear about the relevant details of the
event. The following points are a useful guide:
• The context: time of the day, where it took place, the staff involved, details
about the patient/client, protocols or policies of the unit/hospital
• What happened: break the incident down into each of its stages; describe in
detail what occurred step by step, giving an indication of the timescale as well as
the specific actions taken by you and others.
Avoid giving any interpretation or rationale at this point; focus on giving as objective
an account of the facts as you can.

Analyzing the Incident
Try to follow the method of reflecting ‘on’ and ‘in’ practice as the lecturer has indicated
to you during his lectures.
There are different approaches for analyzing and commenting on the critical incident.
However, whatever approach you adopt, or adapt, the following are the kind of cue
questions you might like to consider:
• Why is this incident significant to you? Does it, for example, raise questions that
perplex you?
• How did the environment, including other people, contribute to this incident?
• What were you trying to achieve and how did events affect your goals?
• What were your feelings while the incident was taking place and what were they
now as you reflect on the events?
• What knowledge did you have available and how did you use it? Does the
incident highlight a gap in you knowledge or skills?
• I what way did your values, beliefs or assumptions affect the way you acted? Is
there any contradiction between the values and beliefs you hold and what you
actually did or said?
• What might other people, such as the patient or client, have been feeling and how
might this have affected the situation?
• How did you make your decisions? What were the cues that prompted you to act
in the way you did?
• Have you examined all the salient features of the experience?
• How would you do things differently now? What new insights have you
developed?
• What were your goals or resolutions for the future? How will this incident change
your future actions?
Remember that when examining and discussing the salient features or areas such as
knowledge, beliefs, values and decision, depending on your incident, if you decide that
you need to develop further your knowledge or skills, you have to support your discussion
on these issues with literature review/research.