Types of reflection

Sarah Stewart 2008sarahstewart07@gmail.com

Image: 'H2O' www.flickr.com/photos/11599314@N00/399970490

Each way of reflecting is important and a combination may be used to make sense of practice, “and imagine and/or bring about changes” (Taylor, 2000)

Image: 'It's breathtaking!'

www.flickr.com/photos/90667736@N00/1362473050

Technical Reflection

Accompanies empirical knowledge & scientific reasoning (very factual) to look at clinical

practices and procedures

Image: 'test tubes 2'

www.flickr.com/photos/55569773@N00/247127539

• Can you think of any clinical procedures that have no benefit?

• How up to date are your hospital/facility policies?

• What do you do as a matter of routine that you wonder may be of no value?

• When was the last time you looked at evidence about an element of practice?

Mary notices a problem withdehydration in the women

in her care

Mary explores the issue of fasting in labour

Mary decides to try allowing women to eat and drink in labour

Mary reflects on the consequences of her new

practice approach

Assess & Plan

Implementation

Evaluation

Technical reflection gives you no sense of social, cultural, political, emotional or

spiritual influences on practice

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Practical Reflection

Making sense & meaning of human experiences

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• How do I feel about being a midwife?

• How am I affected by the women I work with?

• What makes communication so difficult at times?

Susan ‘made’ a woman have an epidural

Susan thinks about her attitudes to pain in labour and how she

supports women

Realizes that she finds it hard to see women in pain

Decides she must work on her own confidence in being a

midwife

Experiencing

Interpreting

Learning

Doesn’t help the understanding of power

relationships or influences

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Emancipatory Reflection

Regards power relationships between people in the workplace

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• What are the power relationships that constrain my practice?

• How can I improve my practice in the light of those constraints?

• How does my perceptions of me and my practice constrain me?

Lisa (midwife) shouts at Ann (student) for encouraging a

woman to birth standing

Thinks about student/midwife relationship

Ann considers Lisa’s feelings about being midwife responsible

Ann talk to Lisa about birth positions, show her evidence

& plans for future births

Construct

Deconstruct

Confront

Reconstruct

Makes small changes slowly

Who dares wins!Image: 'MPIX-NT08-T1103-Q034621' www.flickr.com/photos/13704260@N07/2608178590

Reference

• Taylor, B. (2000). Reflective practice: a guide for nurses and midwives. St Leonards, Allen and Unwin.