Working out what to do in your assignment: Writing a reflection
Wright a reflection - Had a clinical placement at Randwick hospital in spinal injury.
Make sure you can answer the following questions about your assignment
WHY
- What am I learning by doing it?
WHAT
- What kind of assignment is it - e.g. what kind of text do you have to write?
- When is it due?
- How long is it?
- What kind of evidence do I need to use?
- What questions do I need to make sure I answer in my assignment? - look at the marking criteria
HOW
- What do I already know about this topic?
- What do I need to find out more about?
- What resources are provided to help me do this assignment - where are they located?
- What am I going to read; how am I going to read?;
Assessment guidelines -
Reflection is an important skill in everyday nursing practice and contributes to improving professional practice and goal setting for career development.
Choose 2 NMBA Registered Nurse Standards for Practice and reflect on a learning experience that has helped you meet your chosen standards or will help you meet the standards when you are on your next clinical placement.
Choose 3 criteria from each Standard to demonstrate how you have/will meet the standard (not all criteria have to be met but you should plan how you will meet them)
The learning experience may be related to
- a clinical placement experience
- a practice lab / laboratory or tutorial session
- an experience in your current employment
- appropriate personal experience that you are willing to discuss
Reflection using Tanner's model -
Nielsen, A. et al. (2007). Guide for Reflection Using the Clinical Judgment Model. Journal of Nursing Education, Vol.46, No.11
Background
- Describe your relationship to the patient at the time you noticed the situation (e.g., previous contact with patient and/or family, the quality of your relationship).
- Consider experiences you have had that helped you provide nursing care in the situation. Describe your formal knowledge (e.g. physiology, psychology, communication skills), previous nursing experiences with a similar problem, and/or personal experiences that helped guide you as you worked with the patient.
- Describe your beliefs about your role as the nurse in working on the situation.
- Describe any emotions you had about the situation.
Noticing
- What did you notice about the situation initially?
- Describe what you noticed as you spent more time with the patient and/or family.
Interpreting
- Describe what you thought about the situation (e.g. its cause, potential resolutions, patterns you noticed).
- Describe any similar situations you have encountered in practice before. Describe any similarities and differences you observed when compared with the current situation.
- What other information (e.g. assessment data, evidence) did you decide you needed as you considered the situation? How did you obtain this information? What help with the problem did you get from your preceptor?
Your conclusion: What did your observations and data interpretation lead you to believe? How did they support your response to the situation? Include pertinent pathophysiology and/or psychopathology.
Responding
- After considering the situation, what was your goal for the patient, family and/or staff? What was your nursing response, or what interventions did you do? List all actions that you took.
- Describe stresses you experienced as you responded to the patient or others involved in the situation.
Reflection-in-Action
- What happened? How did the patient, family, and/or staff respond? What did you do next?
Reflection-on-Action and Clinical Learning
- Describe three ways your nursing care skills expanded during this experience.
- Name three things you might do differently if you encounter this kind of situation again.
- What additional knowledge, information, and skills do you need when encountering this kind of similar situation in the future?
- Describe any changes in your values or feelings as a result of this experience.
Possible structure -
INTRODUCTION
- Introduce the NMBA standards
- Explain which standards you are using
- Explain why these standards are important
BODY
- Describe the experience
- Break down the experience and reflect on it
- Notice
- Interpret
- Respond
- Reflection in action: what were you thinking at the time
- Reflection on action: link explicitly here to the standards. For each standard explain how the experience you described demonstrates that you did or did not achieve the standards
- Which standards do you need to improve (and why)
- How are you going to improve?
Practise
- Take 5 minutes to think of an experience that you could use for your reflection assignment
- Pick two standards that you think are relevant to this experience
- For each standard pick three criteria that are relevant
Or - try this way of practising
- Think about an experience you can reflect on
- What did you do well /were able to do
- Find the standards that are relevant to what you were able to do well
- What could you not do so well/were not able to do
- Find the standards that are relevant to what you were not able to do.
Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar