Critical emancipatory reflection on a practice-based issue in relation to the working relationship between doctors and nurses in China
Article Category: Discussion
Published Online: May 20, 2019
Page range: 5 - 11
Received: Oct 21, 2018
Accepted: Dec 22, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fon-2019-0003
Keywords
© 2019 Dong-Lan Ling and Hong-Jing Yu, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
Objective
Reflection is viewed as the most significant skill and should be advocated for lifelong learning. In order to grasp the process of reflection and embrace the reflective skill, one of the authors of this paper reflects on a practice-based issue in relation to the communication between doctors and nurses, to gain new understanding and thus improve the authors’ clinical practice.
Methods
Smyth’s framework with four stages is utilized as an ideal framework to guide the author’s reflection on the practice-based issue to free the author from her entrenched assumptions and the oppressive forces that limit her practice.
Results
The espoused and enacted theory, together with the critical reflection theory, are used to explore the values and beliefs that essentially govern the author’s practice and how these are distinct from the author’s worldviews. Following this, critical emancipatory reflection is undertaken to explore the dominant power structures within the author’s workplace. Furthermore, given the hegemonic and chaotic working context of this issue, hegemony and symbolic interaction theory are applied to unearth the various hidden constraining and oppressive forces. Additionally, socialization theory is utilized to help the author achieve professional identity.
Conclusions
Reconstructing the practice-based issue empowers the author to realize that in the future, she should act as a reflective practitioner, creating a daily habit, staying alert to practice, seeing things freshly, finding support systems, improving communication skills, conducting reflective research, and reifying reflective practice. Ultimately, the author will be sufficiently equipped to be able to transform her practice and change its outcomes.