Introduction
The term reflective account refers to the piece of work that reflects the action of an individual with the aim of continuous learning from own experience. The reflective account enables a person to pay critical attention towards an incident or scenario for examining their strength and weakness (Knott and Scragg, 2016). In healthcare, the reflective account helps the individuals to evaluate their knowledge and skills along with determining the requirement of improvement.
This reflective account is written for analysing my abilities and skills of a role play which is part my course work. The reflection is on the role play of the two scenarios among which firstly I was service provider and later a service user. In this reflection, my ability to understand the service user as a service provider will be analysed by using both scenarios. This reflective account is written by using Gibb’s reflective cycle for analysing my experience in roleplay.
Discussion
Gibbs’s reflective cycle given by Graham Gibbs in 1988 for encouraging people to think in a systematic manner about their experiences (Hilliard, et al., 2017). The reflection cycle of Gibbs has 6 stages that are: description, feeling, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan.
Figure 1: Gibb’s reflective cycle
Source: blogs.glowscotland.org.uk
The reflection of role play is as follows:
- Description: this reflection is about my experience as both as medical practitioner and as service user. In the roleplay of a service provider I was interacting with my partner who was a service user and is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The Parkinson’s disease has caused tremors and hinders the daily routine of the user. It makes him to require support in his daily activities. in the second scenario, I was the service user with the same disability and my partner was the service provider.
- Feeling: before participating in the role play, I was anxious and nervous as I have never participated in such activities. I was worried as I did not know my partner very well which can impact on my performance in roleplay. I was not confident that I would be able to perform the role of service user. Initially we had conflict as I represent my idea and not paid attention to the idea of my partner for role play which made me more worried.
- While interacting as service provider to my partner, I listened his situations carefully and understand the dilemmas that I will face as a service provider with the patient with such disabilities. The service user was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease is a nervous system disorder and impact on the ability of an individual to do routine task (Cookson, 2017).
- He was not willing to take support for small task and as a service provider I should respect his decision but I also know that he serious requires support else he can face serious problems. While doing my part as service provider, I felt responsible towards the patient and realised the ethical dilemma faced by them.
- While playing part of service user I learned the physical and psychological problems faced by the users. Before playing the role I only understood their problem from the theory but after playing role I have realised the problem faced by them as a user. after this activity, I felt change in my perception towards the service user and also understood the ways that a service provider should communicate with the user. I was also confident, more empathetic and able to manage anxiety after the role play.
- Evaluation: in the evaluation stage, the good or bad about the situation is examined (Husebø, et al., 2015). Initially, I was nervous but when I started role play, my communication skills helped me to interact with my partner which was effective in both roles. I was paying attention and listening very carefully but my lack of patience makes my partner to repeat certain discussions which annoys him.
- As role play involves one to one working and we do not know each other so initially we faced problem making decision about the scenario and our roles. But after communicating with each other we resolved the conflict and work effectively.
- Analysis: from this activity, I have realised the importance of empathy in behaviour of service provider towards the user. after this activity I have understood that my strength is communication skills and my knowledge about the roles of service provider and user. With the communication skills an individual can make other persons to understand their perception and deliver the information effectively (Arnold and Boggs, 2019). I need to improve my listening ability and patience as both are important for professional and personal life.
- Conclusion: this activity has helped me I analysing my strength in both professional and personal life. I have learned about the ethical dilemma faced by service provider while making decision for service user. I have also understood the importance of interpersonal skills in one to one working and also for understanding the condition of service user. I have understood my strength which is communication skills, understanding of roles and theoretical knowledge and weakness which is lack of patience, lack of empathy and improper listening ability.
- Action plan: firstly, I will work on improving my patience so that I can work with other professional without causing any problems. I also need to improve my listening ability. The listening skills helps in understanding others perception as a professional (Chambers and Ryder, 2018). It will also help me in improving my relationship with other individuals in both personal and professional life. When I will in similar situation in future, I will ask my partner for opinions and listen to them carefully then discuss my opinion with him for avoiding any conflict.
Conclusion
This reflection has made me understand about my weakness and strengths which I have learned properly. I have analysed the scenario and leant that I need to improve my skills for improving my ability to work with others. this reflection has made me analysed the areas where I need to improve for the growth of my professional life. The conclusion that can be drawn from this work is reflective account is an effective method of self-analysis.
Reference
- Arnold, E.C. and Boggs, K.U., 2019. Interpersonal Relationships E-Book: Professional Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
- Chambers, C. and Ryder, E., 2018. Compassion and caring in nursing. Routledge.
- Cookson, M.R., 2017. Parkinson’s disease. In Disease-Modifying Targets in Neurodegenerative Disorders (pp. 157-174). Academic Press.
- Hilliard, D., James, K. and Batt, A.M., 2017. An Introduction to Reflective Practice for Paramedics and Student Paramedics.
- Husebø, S.E., O'Regan, S. and Nestel, D., 2015. Reflective practice and its role in simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), pp.368-375.
- Knott, C. and Scragg, T. eds., 2016. Reflective practice in social work. Learning Matters.
