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Conference Sub-themes
(a) Engaging
Reflection through Reflective Practices
Reflective
practice is defined by Schön (1983) as “a process of thinking
and doing through which I become more skillful”. Reflective
practice (Schön, 1983, 1987). has been advocated as an approach
to personal and professional development (Fish, 1998; Ghaye &
Lillyman, 2000; Higgs & Titchen, 2001; Kinsella, 2000; Moon,
1999). It has been described as a way to: link theory and
practice, generate theory about practice, better understand the
conditions under which practitioners work, develop professional
knowledge and expertise, and improve actions in professional
practice (Argyris & Schön, 1992; Bolton, 2005; Greenwood, 1998;
Johns & Freshwater, 1998; Kinsella, 2001; Honour Society of
Nursing, 2005).
(b) Engaging
Reflection through Critically Reflective and Reflexive Practices
Engagement in
critical reflection and reflexivity is an emerging area of
interest for scholars and practitioners concerned with examining
taken-for-granted dimensions of professional knowledge and
practice in health care contexts. Critical reflection involves
reflection on distortions and errors in the practitioner’s
assumptions, values, and norms, and/or on ideological issues and
the ways in which these influence the extra-individual
dimensions of practice (Brookfield, 1998; 2000; Kemmis, 2005).
Reflexivity places greater emphasis on examining language, power
and relationships, and the ways in which these dimensions shape
social meaning in professional practice (Taylor & White, 2000).
(c) Engaging
Reflection through Mentorship and Preceptorship
A number of
scholars have noted that the process of reflection does not
occur in a silo, but is optimized through relational processes
of collaboration and dialogue (Frank, 2004 van der Linden, &
Renshaw, 2004). Collaboration and dialogue have been identified
as requisite skills for the advancement of interprofessional
health care practice (Herbert et al. 2007), as well as essential
to quality relationships with patients. Scholarship about
mentorship and preceptorship frequently explores reflection in
the context of collaboration and relationship.
(d) Engaging
Reflection through Narrative
Processes of
reflection also underpin the use of narrative in health
professional education. Narratives draw attention to the life
world (Bruner, 2004; Frank, 1995; van Manen, 1990) of the
patient and the practitioner, through attention to story and the
patient’s attribution of meaning (Bruner, 1990; Bruner, 2004).
Narrative conceptions admit particular, personal, situated and
contextual information into the process of deliberation and
discernment in practice (Brody, 1994; Frank, 1995; Mattingly,
1998; Mattingly & Garro, 2000). Attending to narratives in
health care, may invite new possibilities for relationship,
including enhanced mutuality (Frank, 2004) compassion (Nisker,
2004) and practitioner insight (Charon, 2004) into health care
practices.
(e) Engaging
Reflection through the Arts and Humanities
The arts and
humanities have gained growing recognition in recent years as a
means to foster reflection and to potentially promote positive
social change (Clover & Stalker, 2007; Greene, 1995). In the
health professions, the arts and humanities have been used to
facilitate practitioner reflection on the multiple and complex
meanings associated with illness, disability, and healing, and
to promote more compassionate approaches to health care
practice. In addition, the arts have been used to raise
awareness of issues of social justice in health care. As an
example, Jeff Nisker’s (2001) play
Sarah's Daughters, has drawn
public and policy maker’s attention to issues of justice with
respect to genetic testing for breast cancer.
(f) Engaging
Reflection through Ethics Education and Practice
The field of
ethics in the health professions has a long history of
engagement with the relationship between reflective deliberation
and the moral agency of professional practitioners. In recent
years, intersections between the scholarship of reflection and
professional education and the scholarship of reflection in
ethics education have begun to emerge. This stream advances
dialogue and cross fertilization of ideas between these two
fields.
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