Question

Describe two models of self-reflection that you can use to guide your own reflective practice?

Answer 1

Reflective practice is increasingly being considered as a critical dimension of professional development for health professionals. Below is the description of two models of self reflection.

1. Gibb's reflective cycle

Description: Describe in detail the event you are reflecting on.Include e.g. where were you, who else was there, why were you there, what were you doing, what were other people doing, what was the context of the event, what happened, what was your part in this, what parts did the other people play, what was the result.

Feelings: Try to recall and explore the things that were going on inside your head, i.e. why does this event stick in your mind? Include e.g. how you were feeling when the event started; what you were thinking about at the time; how did it make you feel; how did other people make you feel; how did you feel about the outcome of the event; what do you think about it now.

Evaluation: Try to evaluate or make a judgement about what has happened. Consider what was good about the experience and what was bad about the experience or didn’t go so well.

Analysis: Break the event down into its component parts so they can be explored separately. You may need to ask more detailed questions about the answers to the last stage. Include e.g. what went well; what did you do well; what did others do well; what went wrong or did not turn out how it should have done; in what way did you or others contribute to this.

Conclusion: This differs form the evalution stage. It is here that you are likely to develop insight into you own and other people’s behaviour in terms of how they contributed to the outcome of the event. Remember the purpose of reflection is to learn from an experience.During this stage you should ask yourself what you could have done differently.

Action Plan: During this stage you should think yourself forward into encountering the event again and to plan what you would do – would you act differently or would you be likely to do the same? What can you do in the interim to improve your practice/ ability to respond effectively in like situations? Here the cycle is tentatively completed and suggests that should the event occur again it will be the focus of another reflective cycle.

2. Johns reflective cycle: John's model for structured reflection is a technique that is useful in the early stages of learning how to reflect.The following cues help an individual to access, make sense of and through experience.

Description

• Write a description of the experience
• What are the key issues within this description that I need to pay attention to?

Reflection

• What was I trying to achieve?
• Why did I act as I did?
• What are the consequences of my actions?
• For the patient and family
• For myself
• For people I work with
• How did I feel about this experience when it was happening?
• How did the patient feel about it?
• How do I know how the patient felt about it?

Influencing factors

• What internal factors influenced my decision-making and actions?
• What external factors influenced my decision-making and actions?
• What sources of knowledge did or should have influenced my decision making and actions?
• Alternative strategies
• Could I have dealt better with the situation?
• What other choices did I have?
• What would be the consequences of these other choices?

Learning

• How can I make sense of this experience in light of past experience and future practice?
• How do I NOW feel about this experience?
• Have I taken effective action to support myself and others as a result of this experience?
• How has this experience changed my way of knowing in practice?