Reflecting on reflection: students' evaluation of their moving and handling education

This paper discusses the value of introducing the component of reflection into a nursing programme for the teaching and learning of moving and handling. Twenty-five students who had just completed a Common Foundation Programme, of a Diploma in Higher Education (Nursing) course, were asked to evaluate the usefulness of reflection for moving and handling. Their qualitative evaluations suggest that the process of reflection may be instrumental in enabling students to adopt a more questioning approach towards practice through the sharing of different beliefs and values, and that reflection may be instrumental in facilitating a change in practice. Some students chose to take action and change their unsafe moving and handling practice behaviour to a safer one and this was perceived to have personal health and safety benefits. The journey from a passive to a more assertive position was not always easy, however it was viewed to be empowering. This paper will draw on Freire's (1972) socio-political ideas that progressive education can facilitate a movement from a passive domesticating position towards an assertive liberating position.