Explain How Reflective Practice Has Led To Improved Ways Of Working

What is reflective practice in health and social care?

Reflective learning practice is all about gaining a better understanding by revisiting your own past experiences, thoughts, and actions. By regularly reflecting, a leaner develops new ideas to improve problem-solving skills for professional growth in any type of workplace. 

Explain How Reflective Practice Leads to Improved Ways of Working

Reflective practice can also help reduce the dependence of an individual on their past ways and outdated habits of making decisions by encouraging them to assess and adapt to each new situation with new ideas. For example, in health care settings, it’s easy to rely on a routine way of interacting with every person. But by practising reflective practice,  care workers can pause and think: What could I have done differently for him? Did I listen enough to my patient? Did I communicate everything clearly to the patient? 

The reflective cycle is a continuous process of learning in which you learn from previous strategies and develop your own style of working and learning,  It is the creation of individual learning plans that reflect one’s needs, interests, and long-term professional goals. For example, a care assistant might realise that he is good at providing emotional support to families, but he needs help in maintaining documentation on a computer. Through reflection, they can develop their action plan, like seeking training, asking for feedback, or observing how other officers manage their documentation.

Reflective practice is also important for increasing self-awareness in any individual, be it a health and social care worker, so they can make better-informed decisions in the future. In doing so, they not only build competence but also contribute more reliably to the care team.

The reflection technique also develops a continuous learning mindset in social care workers. People continuously revisit their decision-making skills and their impact on their professional development. For example, a support care worker might feel that a single mealtime was stressful for all the patients. The order suggested personalized meal times for every patient so they can have a respectful care experience.

Another important aspect of reflective practice is recognizing how your emotions influence of your decision-making and behavior with people around you. Reflective practice allows us to gain a better understanding of how our feelings can influence the way we behave with other people. These outcomes then impact our communications skills and learning in personal and professional settings. Through reflective learning, we also adjust in how we engage with others.

Reflective practice is also important to develop problem-solving skills in health and social care professionals. Care workers can look back on one problem they have faced in the past and comeup with improved ways that work best in solving those in the future. For example, a healthcare worker might reflect on a time when a patient refused to take medicine. Through reflection, they might realise that the service user was more comfortable when they were involved in decision-making. As a result, the worker could try a new approach, such as explaining the purpose of medication in very simple words or involving a family member in the discussions.