Reflective Practice for Professional Development Among Nursing Instructors

Abstract

Reflective practice among health professionals involves considering and questioning clinical experiences. The process of learning through work involves “reflection-in-action” (the skills of self-awareness, critical analysis, synthesis, and evaluation while executing clinical activities),  and “reflection-on-action” which involves retrospective reviews of the clinical scenarios  experienced by  health professionals (Clouder, 2000; Duffy, 2009). Johns (1995)  suggests that reflective practice is the professional’s ability to understand and learn from work experiences to achieve more effective and satisfying followup work experiences. Nursing instructors play a crucial role in helping nursing students consolidate taught theories and practice through guided and regular reflection on professional experiences (Duffy, 2009). To be effective guides, nursing instructors require the knowledge and skills necessary to implement reflective practice techniques into their teaching. This workshop actively engages participants in examining reflective practice by building on Gibbs’ (1998) six-step reflective cycle (i.e., description, feelings/thoughts, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, and action plan). The goal is to help instructors develop the necessary abilities to guide reflective practice among their students.