How to reflect on clinical practice

This 'How to' article explains how to reflect on clinical practice using reflection-on-action and a reflective model to help ensure the nurse gains comprehensive learning from an experience or incident to enhance their professional development and patient care. • Reflection is a vital element of nursing practice and has a wide-ranging purpose including, for example, self-inquiry into experiences to find meaning, gain insight and prompt action, recognition of emotional responses to care situations and exploring wider issues, such as healthcare culture. • Reflection-on-action involves a retrospective critical exploration of an experience or incident to identify learning points and may be engaged in alone, with one other person, for example during clinical supervision, or in a group activity. • There are a range of reflective models that can be used to structure a reflection, the main components of which generally include a description of the event, reflection on its meaning and identification of learning. REFLECTIVE ACTIVITY: 'How to' articles can help to update your practice and ensure it remains evidence based. Apply this article to your practice. Reflect on and write a short account of: • How this article might improve your practice when using reflective techniques. • How you could use this information to educate nursing students or your colleagues on the appropriate methods for reflecting on clinical practice.