Reflection Intended Learning Outcomes To gain a deeper

Reflection

Intended Learning Outcomes • To gain a deeper understanding of what we mean by reflection and the reflective learning cycle. • To apply that understanding to reflective writing.

Definition • Johns • Reflection is a personal process which enables the practitioner to assess, understand learn through their experiences. This results in some change for the individual in their perspective of a situation or creates new learning for the individual.

So what does that actually mean? • Take a couple of minutes to talk in pairs about what you take this to mean for you in your practice. • We will feed a few ideas back to the group

Levels of Reflection 4 Areas: 1 information; enough to paint a picture of the events 2 self awareness; open and honest about what occurred 3 critical analysis; looking at the bigger picture and then analysing the smaller parts to understand the whole 4 evidence of learning; synthesis, judgment and evaluation

Why bother? • Why being a reflective practitioner is important • Reflection empowers us to: • demonstrate insight by identifying actions to help learning, development or improvement of practice, developing greater insight and self-awareness • identify opportunities to improve quality and patient safety in organisations. • There is a strong public interest in medical practitioners being able to reflect in an open and honest way. • All medics are required to demonstrate reflective practice- undergrad/postgrad and via appraisal

What Stops Us Reflecting? • Take a moment to think about what stops you reflecting on events

Blockers Procrastination Too busy/other priorities Challenging/uncomfortable/upsetting Concerns about writing things that show you in a less than perfect light • Concerns about litigation/GMC ix • Don’t understand the reasons why it’s important • •

Tips • Reflection can be on both positive and negative experiences • With difficult or emotive situations- write the jist of the events but then complete the reflection after you have had a bit of time to recover • Avoid long detailed narrative (this is not necessary as it’s the learning that is more important and can lead to patients being identifiable) • Focus on why you have chosen the case- what feelings does it raise in you? Why have you remembered the events? • Try to step back and look at what happened- break down the good and the bad elements of the situation • This will help you to formulate some ideas about what you understand about the events • Try to look at what might have been done differently

Gibbs Reflective Cycle