Week 10 - Reflective Writing

Question 1

What is reflective writing?

Answer 1

• Reflective writing is one of many tools to promote reflective learning. It is a means to promote critical thinking, analysis, metacognition and synthesis, and a means for developing reading as well as writing skills.
• It has been shown enhance the students’ reasoning skills and awareness in clinical situations
• Reflective writing is a tool for students’ professional learning, but above all for the students’ personal development in becoming a professional nurse.

Question 2

Why is reflective practiced needed?

Answer 2

• Reflective practice is a BCCNM entry to practice expectation and a UBCO BSN expectation
• Reflection is an important part of nursing practice. When reflecting on a situation it is important to reflect and consider other points and of view and reflect on our own biases

Question 3

What is reflection?

Answer 3

• Controlled, focused thought. Thinking back on a situation

Question 4

What is Critical Reflection?

Answer 4

• Controlled focused thought; thinking back to situations to examine and investigate with the goal of discovery - new learning

Question 5

What does the literature tell us about reflective practice?

Answer 5

• Leads to a deeper understanding
• Helps us sort out where to find information
• Grows nursing practice
• Where do we find information to grow our practice? Literature, mentors, experienced nurses, patients.

Question 6

Different ways to practice reflective practice?

Answer 6

• dialogue; verbally (debriefing, post conferences; writing, reflective writing!

Question 7

When asked to write a reflection…

Answer 7

• Try not to get stuck at just writing about feelings
• Do reflect on perspectives, beliefs, and assumptions

Question 8

What is the difference between Diary writing and Reflective Writing?

Answer 8

• Dairies normally describe an individual thoughts and feelings, and how events shaped the individual personal experience
• Reflective writing is more complex and takes more work and energy, but does have some elements on how a situation impacted an individual.

Question 9

Reflective writing must be professional and scholarly

Answer 9

• To learn how to learn is to learn how to think
• To learn how to think is to learn how to question
• To learn how to question is to learn what there is to be questioned
• Reflective practice must ask us to question what we are told.

Question 10

Teachers feedback on students’ reflective writing

Answer 10

• Should respond sensitively and non-critically to your disclosures
• Acknowledge your specific achievements and challenges
• Pose questions to evoke deeper levels of thinking
• Use metaphors and analogies to help you explore ideas and to expand your thinking
• Suggest alternate ways to look at the experience
• Comment on areas where deeper exploration could lead to new insights and learning
• Direct you to further resources
• Should be kind of a back-and-forth interaction

Question 11

The problem with thinking…

Answer 11

• We all think we think, but often, our thinking is: surface level
• Not always well-informed by the literature/evidence/research
• Bias/incomplete
• Reflective thinking makes us think deeply about why we do things like in clinical practice

Question 12

What is Critical Thinking?

Answer 12

• Critical think is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking
• It requires rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use
• “critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better” Richard Paul

Question 13

A well cultivated critical thinker?

Answer 13

• Raise vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely
• Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
• Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards
• Thinks open mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences
• Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems

Question 14

The value of structure in reflective writing?

Answer 14

• Structure is very important to help guide you in your though processes in order to grow your own nursing practice
• Should be centered around the writer/your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and that should be where your examples come from primarily, however it is essential to understand your own thoughts for the end goal of personal growth and transformation and new ways of doing things (in practice) for our patients and clients
• Consider using the narrative and then a reflection on the narrative format
• Write on what is salient (most noticeable or important) to you
• Write about something you would like to learn more about (i.e., hope, suffering, pain, connecting)
• Do not write to prove or please or tell us about your day!

Question 15

Models of Reflection

Answer 15

• Several different critical reflection models/frameworks to use: Dewey; Schon; Gibbs. We will be using Gibbs

Question 16

The Reflective Cycle (Gibbs 1988)

Answer 16

• Description: What happened. (its asking use to provide a concise description of the situation we want to reflective on)
• Feelings: What were you feeling? (how were you feeling, do you think differently prior to the experience or event, and how do you feel afterwards, not analysis)
• Evaluation: What was good or bad about the experience? (what went well/badly, how the experience end/was it incomplete, no analysis)
• Analysis: What sense can you make of the situation. (Think about why you think it went well or not, think about what could have done to prevent the negative outcomes or improve the positive ones, think about your part in the situation, overall examine and explain the potential outcomes)
• Conclusion: What else could you have done? (is there anything I could have done differently or better, are the barriers to me doing this, did I learn anything about myself, did this experience meet or achieve learning outcome for the course)
• Action Plan: If it happened again what would you do? (what could I do to be better prepared in the future)