“Maybe reflective practices offer us a way of trying to make sense of the uncertainty in our

workplaces and the courage to work competently and ethically at the edge of order and chaos…”
(Ghaye, 2000, p.7)

In order to fully understand the personal development and reflective reasoning in relation to your
development in the Nursing field, one will have to define these two terminologies. Personal
development means to include activities that improve awareness, can develop potential that will
ultimately enhance the quality of life. Medical colleges advocate personal development plans as a
basis for continuing professional development. Whereas, reflective reasoning is where a nurse can
apply learning and insights of others into their own work. In nursing courses students learn through
lecture and discussion, which is the primary method for teaching theoretical principles, but when
you add a more complete understanding of the relationship between theory and practice one may
become a more competent nurse. Awareness of issues and analysis of knowledge and feelings are
some stages that are involved in reflection but then identification and integration of new learning is
needed as well. By consciously engaging in their own and others reflection it is believed that the level
of professional interaction will improve. Motivation, one issue bound to crop up in ones work life, as
well as leadership and of course managing conflict these are some issues when speaking of personal
development.

The ability to reflect upon us is a valuable part of human life, insisted Taylor (2000). Reflection and
reflective practice are claimed to enhance professional development, link theory and practice,
promote critical thinking, lead to self-awareness and understanding, empower practitioners and
promote personal, social and political emancipation. According to Schon (1983), reflection in action
is a more dynamic process of thinking about and coming to a core understanding of current
professional practice at the time. “To be able to reflect one must step outside the experience in
order to make the observance comprehendible” Gray (1998). To do this, one must have motivation.
When speaking of motivation, task variety and participation allows each member of the team to use
different skills as well as rotating the less desirable tasks giving a cohesive feeling to the team while
motivating them. Bowen and Lawler (1992), argue practices that empower such as providing
organizational information to employee, bureaucratic control reduction and increased self-power all
helps to increase employee motivation. French and Raven (1959) add that motivation is a
characteristic that makes one want to do or carryout a task willingly without being directed.

Leadership is an important role in life and an even more important role in the success of a nurse. To
be a leader one must be creative. Creativity results from engaging in surroundings to seek new
possibilities. For the best outcome of reflection, and the use of creativity, one should be as impulsive
as possible in recording thoughts and feelings. Efficient clinical leaders are supposed to able to help
others to see and understand situations from various outlooks and effective clinical nurse leaders
must be willing to look for new ways of doing things. One theory that can be readily used by new
nurses is modeled after Ida J. Orlando. This theory concentrates on the process nurses’ use to
identify a patients immediate needs and more specifically to reach those objectives it draws on cues
in the interpersonal process. Using Orlando’s theory as the framework, Laurent (2000) proposes a
dynamic leader-follower relationship model. The dynamics of being part of a team makes it difficult
to identify the best way to resolve possible conflicts of interests and opinions, which is the
responsibility of the leader (Kerfoot, 2001). Identifying a issue that has occurred on the job, or
highlighting, is an important attribute from a leaderships point of view. This enables one to share
issues and promotes a reflective outlook which team members and/or management would all gain
from because it becomes knowledge gained. At the time new nurses are finding their niche, they can
simultaneously develop basic leadership philosophies assisted by interaction with established
nursing managers.

Along with leadership comes managing conflict, one of the qualities identified by Cook (2004), the
issue of influencing others through delivery of meaningful information is a way of managing conflict.
In the workplace managing conflict could be taking on an extra case even-though your caseload is
full, but if notes are taken then than this can help with another’s difficulties later on. Cook (2004)
mentions that another useful technique to managing conflict is the one of respecting. This quality
involves having regard for the signals that emanate from other individuals or being able to respect
colleagues’ opinions can be regarded as the most important tool for managing conflict. As frustrating
as this may be all team members have to take the time to listen to everyone’s opinion; a time-
consuming process where the inclination is frequently to jump on the first answer given rather than
go through the lengthy and frequently tedious process of hearing from everyone, Harrington-Mackin
(1996).

In this paper the use of personal and professional development in the field of nursing is discussed
using the purposes, strategies, and processes to promote the improvement of reflection were
described, including methods for reflecting-on-action and reflecting-in-action. The definition,
meaning and understanding of reflection, personal and professional development in nursing varies
from person to person and the challenges of discovering your own definition lays the same. As for
the methods, processes, and purposes of reflective practice are as widespread as the human
imagination, as each new venture into reflective practice validates the evidence of its usefulness to
improve ones personal development in every field of nursing.

Works Cited

Bowen, D. E. and Lawler, E. E. 1992. "The Empowerment of Service Workers: What, Why,

How, and When." Sloan Management Review, 33: 31-39.

Cook, Michael J. (2004) Learning for clinical leadership. Journal of Nursing Management Volume 12,
Issue 6, pages 436–444, November 2004

French, J. & Raven, B. H. (1959). The bases of social power. InD. Cartwright(Ed.), Studies in social
power(pp. 150-167). Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.
Ghaye, T. (2000) Into the reflective mode: bridging the stagnant moat. Reflectice Practice, 1(1) 5-9.

Gray, G. (1998). Becoming a reflective practitioner. In Towards a Discipline of Nursing, Churchill

Livingstone, Melbourne, pp. 335-354.

Harrington-Mackin, D. (1996) Keeping the Team Going: A Tool Kit to Renew & Refuel Your Workplace
Teams, March 26, 1996 AMACOM

Kerfoot, K. (2001). The Leader as Synergist. MEDSURG Nursing, 10(2), 101-103.

Laurent, C.L. (2000). A nursing theory for nursing leadership. Journal of Nursing Management, 8, 83-
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SCHÖN D A (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: how professionals think in action London: Temple
Smith

Taylor, B.J. (2000) Reflective Practice: a Guide for Nurses and Midwives. Buckingham: Open University
Press