INTRODUCTION TO

REFLECTION AND
REFLECTIVE WRITING

Faculty: Naeema Bakhat

Acknowledgement: M. Fayyaz Awan
Generic BS-Nursing,Year II Semester IV
Jinnah College of Nursing
 Objectives
At the end of this session, the participants will be able to:
 Define reflection
 Explain the sources of reflection
 Identify the skills and attitudes of reflection
 Start the reflective writing
 Describe different frame works and models of reflective
writing
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 What is reflection
 Thinking about………
 Pondering on……..
 Asking yourself questions about………..
 Discussing with yourself….
 Trying to work something out…
 Making sense of things
 Learning from experience….
 Helping you plan for the future…. 06/23/2023 3
 Sources of reflection
 Everyday events
 Positive experiences
 Eventful incidents
 Unusual incidents
 Routine activities
 Important events
 Meaningful events
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What might you reflect upon in day to
day life?
 “That was a great holiday”
 “My car has turned out to be an old banger”
 “I’ve had a very productive weekend”
 “I keep running out of money before the end of
the month”

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 So why is it important?
Reflection is seen as helping to:
 bridge the theory practice gap
 Reduce practices based on custom and practice
 Develop and understand your practice, decisions
made, lessons learnt and implication of these for
future practice
 Ensure that care remains patient centered and
based in the patient experience
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 Skills / attitudes for reflection
 Willing to learn from experience and change
things
 Able to make time for reflection
 Being open and honest
 Willing to share and discuss your experiences
 Beingmotivated to replay / describe / analyze
experiences
 Able to make an action plan 06/23/2023 7
 Starting reflective writing
 Have a pen and paper available at all times
 Be spontaneous
 Write down ideas as they come to you
 Don’t
worry about structure, order, spelling,
grammar
 Be imaginative
 Make sense later with the help of a more
formalized structure 06/23/2023 8
 Choose an incident / experience from
the course so far
Make notes on the following:
 Describe the experience – who? Where? What was
happening?
 What were your thoughts and feelings?
 What was positive ?
 What was negative ?
 What have you learned?
 Discuss with a colleague. 06/23/2023 9
“Putting your thoughts on paper’’
 Discussin your pairs the experience of putting
pen to paper- transferring your thoughts into
writing
 How easy was it ?
 Did it change your views in any way?
 What
is it like to see your thoughts written
down?
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 Gibbs’s Reflective cycle (1988)
 Description
 Feelings
 Evaluation
 Analysis
 Conclusion
 Acton plan
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 Description
 Where was I ?
 Who else was there?
 Why was I there?
 What was I doing
 What happened ?

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 Feelings

 How was I feeling at the beginning?

 What was I thinking about?
 What did other people’s actions make me think /
feel?
 How did I feel about the outcome?
 What do I think about it now?

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 Evaluation
 What was good about the experience for me, the
patient, others?
 What was bad about the experience for me, the
patient, for others?

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 Analysis

breaking it down’
‘

 What did I do well / not so well?

 What did others do well ?
 Did it go as expected?
 Why / why not?
 What theory / research helps me understand the
experience?
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 Conclusion

 Could I have done anything differently?

 What are the key things I have learned from this
incident- about me, my performance, others and
their performance.
 Canthis be evidence of achievement of
placement outcomes/ competencies

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 Action plan
 What would I do in a similar situation in the
future?
 Whataspects of my knowledge / skills could I
develop?
 How will I do this?
 What goals can I set myself for the future?
 Whatoutcomes/ competencies do I need to focus
on now? 06/23/2023 17
 The what? Model of structured
reflection (Driscoll 2000)
What …..
 …is the purpose of returning to this situation?
 Happened?
 Did I see / do ?
 Was my reaction ? Did other people do?

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 So what?
 How did I feel?
 How did these compare with other people’s feelings?
 Do I still feel the same?
 What were the effects of my actions?
 What are the positive aspects?
 What have I noticed about my practice?
 What have other people noticed about my practice?
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 Now what?
 What are the implications of this analysis-for me and others?
 What if I do nothing?
 What information / skills would I need to cope with similar
experiences?
 What help would I need to acquire these?
 What is the main learning from this experience and
reflection?
 Isthis evidence of achievement of placement outcomes /
competencies? 06/23/2023 20
 Basic things to put in place to be
successful
 Experiment with different approaches until you find one that
‘fits’
 Commit to giving time to reflection in whatever form you
choose. See it as an essential aspect to your practice rather
than an ‘add on’
 Start small and work up to the big issues
 Be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking
 Be willing to challenge your assumptions and practices
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 Reflective writing
 Helps you learn from experience
 Helps you build on your expertise
 Developing your expertise is an important aspect
of evidence based practice
 Reflective writing can be used as evidence to
include in your portfolio to help you achieve
your placement outcomes
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 References
 Driscoll (2000) practicing clinical supervision. Balladeer Tindal
London
 Driscoll and Teh B(2021) the potential of reflective practice to
develop individual orthopedic nurse practitioners their practice
journal of orthopedic nursing. 5 . 95 -103
 Gibbs g (1988) learning by doing. A guide to teaching and
learning methods. Further education unit oxford polytechnic.
Oxford cited in jasper M (2003) formations in Nursing and health
care beginning reflective practice. Nelson thrones Cheltenham

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