Introduction
Self-reflection is a way of analyzing one’s own experience and all the processes in a person’s life. It is essential to understand that reflection is primarily a view from all positive and negative sides. Feedback and awareness of one’s work are necessary to improve the efficiency and result of one’s career. For nurses, such reflection is equally essential to develop themselves, particularly their strengths and weaknesses. Self-reflection and professional reflection have much in common, but they are fundamentally different. Reflection is a valuable tool for me and many health care professionals, especially an essential part of the work of nurses.
Personal and Professional Self-Reflection
First, self-reflection on analyzing one’s personal experience and how it can improve it in the future. Second, this type of reflection is mainly directed at myself and at increasing the importance of my work and its implications for the individual. Instead, professional thinking is primarily aimed at improving work efficiency and analyzing my performance in the workplace (Reljić et al., 2019). It also includes my need to communicate with patients and other staff. For me, professional reflection is critical because it allows me to improve my work from the professional side and establish cooperation with patients.
This method is necessary for the activity of my personal experience because professional reflection will allow me to develop my work more actively and realize all my mistakes made at the beginning (Grech, 2021). Every employee, especially in the medical field, must constantly evaluate experience and analyze it to improve work efficiency.
In the same context, it is worth talking about my professional self-reflection as a medical worker as self-knowledge and awareness of the purpose of my practice. Many young people must necessarily go through and carry out all the stages of self-reflection for their own good (Tawanwongsri & Phenwan, 2019). At first, I did not understand the importance of my work and its correct execution. In addition, if I analyze them every day, it will, teach me to explore their actions and learn from personal experience. This type of analysis will allow nurses to rethink their point of view and realize what norms are inherent in the environment in which a person is.
Nurses are essential to the hospital environment; they provide patients with everything they need, and this is my main job. Patients with the most complex diseases pass through such workers, and nurses provide them with a comfortable stay in the clinic. Thus, self-reflection on dealing with such people is essential to understand which aspects of your work you need to improve or, for example, learn something new (Zhang, et al., 2017). This process is also necessary from the point of view of compliance with the recommendations since I must meet specific life topics, including medical personnel. Accordingly, if there is a reflection, I can often not know what actions he is taking and whether he meets all the essential requirements.
In particular, if after such an action, the patient’s well-being worsens, it is essential to analyze the efforts and immediately draw a conclusion. Having checked everything in this way, I can act effectively in the future according to all previous experience. At the same time, it is worth remembering that the method of introspection will allow you to avoid possible new stimuli in the future or, on the contrary, to repeat all successful actions. An important step is that such a method will often allow me to accurately find a solution and understand the best way out of a situation.
The Gibbs Reflective Cycle
For nurses, reflection is essential for building their work and working on themselves. Healthcare professionals can benefit from a reflective practice program in this complex and ever-changing environment it is tasking in Ardian (2019). Learning about reflection helps healthcare professionals improve their clinical knowledge, primarily through review in their daily hospital practice. The best confirmation of this is the Gibbs Reflective Cycle, which provides clear step-by-step actions for qualitative and quick analysis of one’s actions (Ardian et al., 2019). Ardian (2020) analyzes how Gibbs’ rules affect the medical staff and how effectively they should apply all their theoretical knowledge. In the same vein, the work of Grech, J. (2021) is essential. It reveals crucial topics related to this work, namely the understanding of reflection, the division of reflection, and its application.
By using reflective practice, nurses can plan their actions and consciously monitor them to ensure they benefit patients. Thus, using Gibbs’ approaches to reflection, that is, going through the entire circle of thought, improving the quality of care and stimulating personal and professional growth it would be usefull to read Ardian (2019) aboute nursing skill and Gibbs’. If one follows Gibbs’ reflective cycle of the following six distinct steps to help structure reflection on the learning experience: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusions, and action plan, this method allows nurses to conduct human practice as well as possible and reduce the number of errors in the work.
In this way, nurses can better approach solving various problems affecting patients and their personal and work lives. People today say that such a thing is essential for nurses to improve their practice. An extensive literature of research emphasizes the importance of self-reflection in the context of personal training (Ardian et al., 2019). The primary important function of such reflections is self-study and analysis of experience and learning from mistakes.
Key Outcomes
An essential component of each stage of self-reflection is, first of all, the conclusion that a person makes. What should create such work results qualitatively and efficiently for nursing practice. A critical step is to know one’s solid qualities and understand how to do things right to gain personal leadership (Ardian et al., 2019). According to Gibbs, there are a few key elements to look out for. First, a person must realize that the experience that happened should positively impact the future and understand how it will allow him to improve his performance (Adeani et al., 2020).
The second important step is to analyze the situation and what news it brought. After a well-developed reflection, a person can understand that he has learned something new. The third step in this system is essential to nurses because it determines how a person’s actions have affected others. This moment is critical for health professionals because it allows them to qualitatively evaluate their work with patients and how people can improve it in the future (Cheng, Huang, Yang & Chang, 2020). Accordingly, even before that, the nurse must conclude and make the necessary assumptions. The last significant step in the inference process is calculating all possible actions that what did not take. In this context, such a system must understand what should be added to the workflow.
Essential examples in the literature of self-reflection and its correct application are “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Man in Search of Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, and “The Art of Being Happy” by the Dalai Lama. These books reveal how to do reflection correctly and how you can quickly move from theory to practice if you perform similar actions as the people in these books. Self-reflection in such cases can not only develop leadership qualities but will allow them to adapt to a new environment or situation in which a person finds. In particular, the development of stress resistance is possible because the nurse can adapt quickly and be ready for communication.
Strategies for Practice
To improve leadership qualities, The Gibbs Reflective Cycle suggests, first of all, teaching to develop nurses’ ideas. Very often, such statements appear when a process of reflection takes place, so it is essential for staff to try new things and adhere to these ideas (Bubnys, 2019). In particular, they must be willing to change the situation and take further action to improve their practice. At the same time, the nurse must also be able to speak for herself. That will allow them to gain courage and try to change their practice, which is essential for nurses (Dhaliwal et al., 2018). In particular, a nurse must be able to defend their opinion and side.
In addition, to develop leadership qualities in nurses, it is necessary that after a process of self-reflection, if a person has questions, they know how to ask them (Bussard, 2016). In this context, nurses must overcome fear and eliminate it as soon as possible. It is vital that, in this case, a person can gain self-confidence and the ability to model their actions, knowing how to ask for help from others (Beauvais, Ozbas & Wheeler, 2019). Of course, many need the ability to develop analytical skills to be a personal leader. In particular, leadership behavior requires the ability to analyze one’s actions in terms of complex tasks (Fergusson, Laan, & Baker, 2019). This method primarily improves a person’s thinking process and is focused on quick problem-solving.
Thus, in the Gibbs cycle, it is essential, first of all, to bet on the development of personal qualities since only they can make it possible to carry out qualitative reflections. In this context, nurses must develop the ability to act appropriately in situations (Ardian, Hariyati & Afifah, 2019). It is essential to develop the ability to work correctly and qualitatively with patients and build your further actions based on mistakes or positive experiences.
Conclusion
Self-reflection is an essential and integral part of the work of health professionals, especially nurses. This analysis allows the nurse to improve skills and work appropriately with patients. Professional self-reflection is a correct subject that nurses should use, as such a process enables a broader view of one’s situation and the experience gained. To work well with self-reflection, it is crucial to consider The Gibbs Reflective Cycle, which reveals the primary and critical actions regarding the correct analysis process. Along with this, following the instructions of Gibbs, people can develop leadership qualities in a nurse or teach her how to correctly and usefully analyze previous experience and transform everything into only positive consequences.
References
Adeani, I. S., Febriani, R. B., & Syafryadin, S. (2020). Using Gibbs’reflective Cycle in Making Reflections of Literary Analysis. Indonesian EFL Journal, 6(2), 139-148.
Ardian, P., Hariyati, R. T. S., & Afifah, E. (2019). Correlation between implementation case reflection discussion based on the Graham Gibbs Cycle and nurses’ critical thinking skills. Enfermeria Clinica, 29, 588-593.
Beauvais, A. M., Ozbas, A. A., & Wheeler, K. (2019). End-of-life psychodrama: Influencing nursing students’ communication skills, attitudes, emotional intelligence and self-reflection.
Bubnys, R. (2019). A journey of self-reflection in students’ perception of practice and roles in the profession. Sustainability, 11(1), 194.
Bussard, M. E. (2016). Self-reflection of video-recorded high-fidelity simulations and development of clinical judgment. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(9), 522-527.
Cheng, Y. C., Huang, L. C., Yang, C. H., & Chang, H. C. (2020). Experiential learning program to strengthen self-reflection and critical thinking in freshmen nursing students during COVID-19: A quasi-experimental study. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(15), 5442.
Dhaliwal, U., Singh, S., & Singh, N. (2018). Reflective student narratives: honing professionalism and empathy. Indian J Med Ethics, 3(1), 9-15. Web.
Fergusson, L., van der Laan, L., & Baker, S. (2019). Reflective practice and work-based research: a description of micro-and macro-reflective cycles. Reflective Practice, 20(2), 289-303.
Grech, J. (2021). Critical self-reflection for nurse educators: Now more than ever!. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 16(1), 89-91.
Reljić, N. M., Pajnkihar, M., & Fekonja, Z. (2019). Self-reflection during first clinical practice: The experiences of nursing students. Nurse education today, 72, 61-66.
Tawanwongsri, W., & Phenwan, T. (2019). Reflective and feedback performances on Thai medical students’ patient history-taking skills. BMC medical education, 19(1), 1-8.
Zhang, C., Fan, H., Xia, J., Guo, H., Jiang, X., & Yan, Y. (2017). The effects of reflective training on the disposition of critical thinking for nursing students in China: A controlled trial. Asian Nursing Research, 11(3), 194-200.