Writing reflective accounts of practice is required for many healthcare professional revalidation of their registration. The GPhC, recently announced that for pharmacists those renewing their registration on or after 1st October 2022are required to reflect on one or more of the following three standards:
Standard one: Pharmacy professionals must provide person-centred care
Standard two: Pharmacy professionals must work in partnership with others
Standard five: Pharmacy professionals must use their professional judgement
Writing a reflection, enables practitioners to consider their experience, skills and knowledge and to gain an insight into the care they are providing. Reflection can positively impact, your practice, your colleagues and service users. One key aspect of reflective practice is that confidentiality is maintained throughout the piece, the focus of the reflection should be on what the individual learned and can develop from that account, anyone or any healthcare provider, within the account should not be identifiable.
Reflecting on your practice doesn’t have to be a task that is mundane and mandatory, it should something that you write, to question if you can improve or could you have done anything differently. Remember, reflections should also include positive situations, where you may have recently completed some CPD and thought, “I couldn’t have offered that service if I hadn’t completed that CPD”, so how it positively impacted your practice and or patient care. It could reflect upon an episode of care when you may have worked well with a member of the multi-disciplinary team, or assisted a family member well, it doesn’t have to reflect where there is a negative outcome, it is important to recognise and reflect on positive outcomes. It can be a sort of personal debriefing session if you have had a challenging episode of care, to really analyse it and to provide yourself with tools to manage the situation differently in the future.
There are many models of reflection can be used, however, we will be using the Gibbs model of reflection.
Write in detail what actually happened, this is your account, so write it in your words.
The feelings you had from this episode of practice, why does is it a prominent moment? Did your feelings change during the account?
Evaluate your practice, what was good about it, what didn’t go as well as you had hoped?
Analysis, can you break down the event further, to explore each significant element separately? Ask yourself more detailed questions.
Conclusion, have you considered every aspect of the event, be honest with yourself, is there anything else you could have done to change or improve the outcome?
Finally create an action plan, if you came across a similar event what would you do, would it be the same or are there some elements you would change? It doesn’t have to be a large action plan, just what is relevant to that episode and if there is anything you have identified. It may be that you would alter your attitude, you have identified a CPD requirement, or you may have identified a strength.
If you feel at the end of your reflection, that what you have learned or discovered could help peers, then share this information with colleagues. It maybe that someone else has experienced a similar episode and can discuss, how they considered the event and what they gained.
Written by Lisa Humble, Head of Quality and Training, ECG Training, Wednesday 25th May 2022
References:
Gibbs model of reflection (2014) Leading in action located at https://aarontsang12.wordpress.com/2014/05/26/gibbs-model-of-reflection/ accessed 12th May 2022
NHS Education for Scotland , Reflective practice located at https://www.effectivepractitioner.nes.scot.nhs.uk/personal-and-professional-development/reflective-practice.aspx
Accessed 12th May 2022
Health and Care Professions Council (2021) Reflective practice located at: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/meeting-our-standards/reflective-practice/ accessed 12th May 2022
The Pharmacist (2022) GPhC announces new reflective account standards for revalidation located at https://www.thepharmacist.co.uk/news/gphc-announces-new-reflective-account-standards-for-revalidation/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pha%20bulletin accessed 12th May 2022
