Reflective Practice : A Guide for Nurses and Midwives

"...a practical and insightful guide, richly illuminated with stories from everyday practice, to enable the practitioner to become an effective reflective practitioner. The power of Beverley Taylor's approach is to view reflection as a way of life, and not just as a technique". - Christopher Jones, Reader in Advanced Nursing Practice, University of Luton

"Bev Taylor's latest work weaves a tapestry for a reflective frame as foundational to our humanity, restoring and integrating the personal with our professional life, work and experiences. This book elevates the gift of self to the level of an informed guide whereby practitioners can more clearly offer self as a hopeful healing presence to those being served. It is a hopeful framework and a healing gift to all practising nurses and midwives." - Jean Watson, Distinguished Professor of Nursing, University of Colorado, USA

Reflection is widely taught as a means for nurses and midwives to understand the impact of their actions and how to improve their professional practice. This practical guide shows nurses and midwives how to develop their reflective skills and how to sustain reflective practice throughout their professional lives.

Taylor introduces three main types of reflection: technical, practical and emancipatory, showing readers how they can be used in different aspects of clinical work. Her work on technical reflection is original, and she explains how it can become part of evidence-based practice. She acknowledges the issues faced by practitioners in bureaucratic work settings with time constraints and regulated routines, and shows how reflection can help professionals deal with the complexity of their working lives. Readers are given a 'kitbag' of strategies they can use to get started.

With great warmth Taylor describes how developing a reflective practice is part of learning how to value yourself as a nurse or midwife, and as a person. Throughout the book she provides real examples of reflective writing from nurses and midwives, and shows how these professionals have been able to improve their skills as a result of being alert to their practice.

Reflective Practice is suitable for use as an undergraduate teaching text for nurses and midwives and also as a professional reference.

Beverley J. Taylor is Professor of Nursing at Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia. Author of the successful Being Human: Ordinariness in nursing (Churchill Livingstone, 1994), she is well-known for her work on reflective practice.