NBNS2423 Reflective Nursing Assignment: Enhancing Practice through Reflection, Reflexivity, Praxis & Practice Development in Clinical Care

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In an increasingly complex healthcare environment, nurses are expected to move beyond routine tasks and develop the capacity for critical, reflective, and ethical thinking. Reflective practice plays a central role in enhancing professional competence by allowing nurses to evaluate their clinical experiences, challenge assumptions, and promote personal growth. Reflexivity goes even deeper, encouraging self-awareness of how personal values, emotions, and cultural contexts influence decision-making. Praxis, as the integration of theory, reflection, and ethical action, transforms nursing from a task-oriented role into one that actively shapes and improves care. Practice development (PD), meanwhile, focuses on systematic, team-based efforts to improve quality, safety, and person-centred outcomes through shared learning and reflective inquiry.

This assignment is designed to deepen your understanding of how these interconnected concepts support both individual growth and collective transformation in clinical practice. You will critically analyse real or observed nursing situations and propose strategies to promote reflective improvement at both the personal and unit level.

Instructions:

Write a critical essay (1500–2000 words) addressing the following three components:

Part A: Comparative Reflection

Choose two significant clinical experiences you encountered (or observed) during your recent postings:

1. One where reflective practice improved your care or understanding.
2. One where lack of reflection or reflexivity led to a challenge or missed opportunity.

Compare and contrast the situations:

1. What were the outcomes in each?
2. How did reflective or non-reflective thinking impact decision-making, safety, or communication?
3. Use Gibbs or Rolfe’s model to structure the analysis for one of the cases (Case 1).
4. Generally describe another case (Case 2).

Part B: Reflexivity & Praxis in Nursing

Critically examine:

1. How your background, biases, or emotional state affected your interaction in either case.
2. What assumptions did you carry?
3. How could praxis (reflection + action + ethics) have changed the outcome?

Include:

1. Discussion of ethical decision-making, values, and power dynamics in care delivery.
2. Integration of nursing philosophy or ethics frameworks.

Support with at least two scholarly references.

Part C: Practice Development Proposal

Based on your reflection and analysis, propose a mini-practice development initiative for your clinical unit:

1. Identify a team-level issue observed (e.g., communication breakdown, rushed care, unclear role boundaries).
2. Design a reflective-based improvement strategy (e.g., debriefing sessions, peer reflection, reflective huddles).
3. Discuss potential barriers and how to overcome them (e.g., time constraints, resistance to change).
4. Describe how to evaluate the effectiveness of your plan.

Use evidence from journals or local practice guidelines to justify your recommendations.