This paper will reflect upon and explore a critical incident which occurred whilst attending a clinical placement. Reflective practice has become very popular over the last few decades throughout a variety of professions. In some professions it has become one of the defining features of competence. The wide spread utilization of reflective practice is due to the fact that it ‘rings true’ (Loughran, 2000).
Within different disciplines, what is understood by reflective practice varies considerably (Fook et al, 2006). Despite this, some agreement has been achieved. In general, reflective practice is understood as the process of learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and/or practice (Boud et al 1985; Boyd and Fales, 1983; Mezirow, 1981, Jarvis, 1992). This often involves examining assumptions of everyday practice. It also tends to involve the individual practitioner in being self-aware and critically evaluating their own responses to practice situations. The point is to recapture practice experiences and think about them critically in order to gain new understandings.
This is understood as part of the process of life-long learning. Critical Incident DefinitionCritical Incidents are regarded as valuable learning tools for nurses. (Bailey 1995). Nurses are responsible for providing quality of care to patients (NMC 2015).
In order to provide this care there is a need to have the ability to critically think, problem solve, make judgement and contribute to planning. Through the use of Critical thinking these skills can be developed, which can allows the nurse to analysis the situation through evidence , logical thinking and the actions that lead to the incident and will result in a change of p. . lassets/siteDocuments/NMC-Publications/NMC-Standards-for-medicines-management. pdfO’Shea, Ellen (1999) Factors contributing to medication errors: a literature review Journal of Clinical Nursing 8:496-504http://onlinelibrary. wiley.
com/doi/10. 1046/j. 1365-2702. 1999. 00284. x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage==falseParkinson’s Disease National Clinical Guideline for Diagnosis and Management in Primary and Secondary Care (2006) NICE Clinical Guidelines, No.
35. London: Royal College of Physicians (UK)http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih.
gov/books/NBK48513/Parkinson’s UK (2015)http://www. parkinsons. org. uk/news/news-topics/researchPyne, R.
On being accountable. (1988) Health Visitor Jun;61(6):173-5.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3378907″Understanding Parkinson’s” Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (2015)http://www.pdf.org/symptoms
