A person-centred enquiry into the experiences of teaching and learning reflection and reflective practice in pre and post-registration mental health nurse training

摘要

Reflection and reflective practice has become a key issue for curriculum development within nurse education, particularly mental health nursing. The Nursing and Midwifery Council have linked the demonstration of reflective skills to clinical competence to gain entrance onto the professional register. However, despite a significant volume of literature on reflection there is a paucity of research evidence regarding how nurse educators teach mental health nursing students to reflect and become effective reflective practitioners and, little research exploring experiences of staff and students engaged in reflection for teaching and learning purposes. ududA person-centred enquiry was undertaken to explore staff and student perceptions and understanding of reflection in the context of the undergraduate pre- and post-registration mental health nursing diploma programme, utilising a framework involving four focus groups and conducted in the university setting. Findings indicated that participants’ definitions were congruent with the literature on reflection. However, it was evident that students were uncertain as to how to reflect on their practice and this was attributed (by students) to a lack of appropriate teaching, whilst staff felt that they lacked the appropriate context within which to teach skills of reflection. A new model and extended description of effective reflection is offered together with some non-prescriptive recommendations aimed at enhancing teaching practice.ud