Reflective Practice: Making the Leadership Connection to Transform Vision Into Action

Webster defines reflect as turning into or away from a course of action, to deflect. It is also to prevent passage and cause a change in direction. It also means to give back or exhibit an image, like a mirror, to make manifest or to show. This interactive session will explore how the process of reflecting, e.g., reflective practice can be a transformative process to turn vision into action. Leaders progress by thinking about their work within the given context and considerations to be able to improve. Reflective practice is an essential leadership development approach to be able to influence relationships and increase effectiveness. Horizontal leadership development is about skill acquisition whereas vertical leadership development is about sense making and meaning that derives from mindful engagement.

Mindfulness, being present in the moment, is at the core of reflective practice. Mindfulness develops self-awareness in recognizing the connection of actions and consequences, whether how we respond to others or connecting the consequence of the care we give or the shortcuts we take. Reflection informs practice by prompting nurses to make sense of events as well as make connections between events and outcomes. Through mindfulness, we get in touch with our values as the source of our decisions and actions. The session will guide participants through several models of reflective practice including Visual Thinking Strategies to build awareness, What/So What/Now What to reconsider choices and establish vision, and the DEAL model to reframe practice approaches. These models help to analyze and appraise one’s experiences through a cyclic process of introspection and re-evaluation. The process internally examines something important, reflectively reviewing it as a whole and as its parts, to interpret and clarify meaning and significance in relation to self and the environment.

At its deepest, reflective practice uses evaluation and analysis to integrate evidence with personal experience and in doing so reinforces critical thinking, problem solving and role satisfaction. As an art, reflection requires insight, self-awareness and a systematic approach. Leaders consider the personal way of knowing to learn from experiences, culture and interpersonal encounters, all of which help build confidence in one’s competence and evolving practice development Increased confidence builds the capacity to step forward, develop self-efficacy and contribute to gaining meaning from one’s work, to turn vision into action. Reflective practice involves the ability to identify, understand and acknowledge the events that help shape practice perspectives. Through active engagement in critical analysis about the work of nursing, reconstructing an experience in order to plan for future actions and responses, reflective practice represents a commitment to ongoing personal improvement and professional development.

Re-orienting from task oriented to mindful presence presents a new mental model. By using case examples, the session will demonstrate how nurse leaders can create space for reflection in busy work environments, for example, including a moment for reflection in meetings to consider culture, communication or celebrations that reflect and explore the values of the group and think aspirationally about future directions.