Reflective practice is the process of learning from experiences to gain new insights (2). It involves the critical evaluation of one's actions in a given scenario to improve future practice and thus continue the process of lifelong learning (2). Personally, self-awareness has allowed me to be able to reflect and review my own practice and continuously improve. Self-awareness is one of the domains which has seen the most significant growth through my journey over the past 2 years.

At the beginning of this course, I knew little about reflection and sometimes struggled to identify strengths and weakness, emotions, and prejudices. As confidence was an area I already struggled with, I found the process of looking for weaknesses challenging and something that could lower my confidence. When it came to analysing strength, I would never give myself the credit for something I had done well at. At the beginning of the course, any reflective assignment caused me great stress and I had to put a lot of thought and effort into it, just to get a pass. It was my commitment to quality of care that drove me to improve this skill, as I knew that I could not improve or progress in the profession without self-awareness. I watched many online videos', read reflective textbooks and read through reflective work of my peers, to identify how I could improve my own work. Through this means of Continuous Professional Development and regular repetition, I was able to improve my self-awareness and my reflective writing skills. 

Over the course of my 5 placements, I was regularly encouraged to self-reflect. This was guided by the work of Driscoll (3) and Gibbs (4). I practiced using different models to experiment with which worked best for me. I also had to complete a mandatory post placement reflection on an aspect of placement that particularly stood out to me. These are presented here as ' Placement Reflection 1-4'. I was able to demonstrate self-awareness by using reflection on personal practice and feedback from others on preferences and ways of working and analyse how they may influence practice. I have regularly completed written reflections throughout my practice placements. There has been an improvement in the quality of my reflections over the past 2 years, however they are far from perfect. One area in which I always find  challenging with written reflections, is finding literature that is similar to the thought process of the reflection to support and critically evaluate the situation. I think the best way to combat this difficulty, is to read around the area diligently and allow this to then guide the reflection. This is something I will carry on doing into qualification. An area I believe to be a weakness of mine, is critically evaluating my own work and work of others. I believe on many occasions I can be too descriptive in my writing style and lose sight of what needs to be critiqued. I hope to attend some critical writing seminar/classes once I graduate to enhance this skill and ensure it can serve my practice better in future.

Another area I could do more in, is reflecting verbally with seniors. Up until my final placement, I would not routinely speak to my educator about what I had found on assessment of a patient or how I felt the encounter went. During my last placement this improved, and I regularly sought out my educator after patient encounters to speak about how I felt I did, what I could do better in future and seeking their feedback on the topic. When graduated, I hope to continue this CPD process. I believe demonstrating self-awareness on personal practice and feedback and analysing how these may influence practice has allowed my scope of practice to grow. For example, difficult experiences in the past were negative for me, whereas now I will discuss and reflect on the situation with a senior, with the view to improving how I handle these situations in future. I feel the growth from this will improve at a greater rate once working in a qualified capacity, as I will be involved in situations on a day-to-day basis, and not just 6 week blocks. 

At the beginning and end of every placement I completed a SWOT analysis on myself and my practice. These are presented on this page a 'SWOT Analysis placement 2 & 3'. I have also at times conveyed my opinions on forums, demonstrating my emotions and what I believe to be my scope of practice. I have evidenced this through a screenshot under a forum post. By doing the above I am demonstrating my ability to identify preferences of ways of working, including strengths and weakness, emotion, and scope of practice and with guidance, showing an understanding how these things can influence practice. This is definitely an area I could do more in. While I am capable of completing SWOT analysis, I usually seek assistance from seniors or my educator to reinforce my beliefs about my strengths. As I have previously mentioned, I believe this to be a confidence issue. I feel as though because I am a student, my strengths are not really yet strengths as I have not had the time and experience to develop them enough.

I have occasionally posted my preferences and ideas which influence practice into forums (presented here as 'forum comments - SOP') but disappointingly I do not regularly have these conversations with colleagues. It is important that I start reflecting and having these conversations with colleagues more often about scope of practice, emotion and prejudice, as it will lead to being able to assure the quality of my own practice.  I believe recently I have been better able to convey my preferences in the form of a 'PDP'. Creating small goals with the aim of working to a large goal has aided me in identifying these preferences to influence my practice. I aim to have more discussions with colleagues as I move into qualified practice and will reflect on the best way for this to occur. Reflection can aid in my journey around the CPD cycle of 'Plan, Do, Review' and may lead to positive changes in my everyday practice if conducted appropriately (5).