PDF (PhD Thesis) - UWE Research Repository - University of the ...

individually or as part of a team? Does it happen in work time or is it another add on to
the job? Does the thought of reflecting leave you cold and uninspired, just another fad?
Could reflection be supportive?
Why have I been chosen?
As part of the inquiry I will be joining your nursing team for one day a week in practice
for about 9 months. It is 10 years since I regularly worked in a hospital ward and I will
be keeping records of my own reflective processes while also delivering nursing care.
This will also involve observing reflective practices as they happen in the nursing team
and inquiring into the tensions and possibilities of these processes. This will involve
asking questions about practice some of which I hope to record using a tape recorder.
In addition I would also like to invite some of you to join me in a small co-inquiry group
of about 6 people which will hopefully represent all the grades of staff in your nursing
team to meet in work time for about an hour and a half in order to help make sense of
the stories of practice gathered. I hope to explore together, whether and how reflection
makes a difference to our practice and to patients. You don‘t have to think reflection is
a ―good thing‖ to take part in the study. You don‘t have to have studied it in the past. I
want to engage with practitioners who are willing to be open and questioning about
their practice and have a range of views about reflecting in practice.
Do I have to take part?
This is entirely voluntary and if you choose to take part, you will be able to leave the
study at any time. Any information you do not want included in the study can be
withdrawn at any time.
What does a Collaborative Inquiry Group mean?
A collaborative inquiry group is a group of people who come together to explore issues
of concern and interest with the aim of developing and improving their practice. So in
this instance the focus will be around reflecting in practice. It is similar to an action
learning set which involves reflection and action. Not only will I be noticing my
reflective processes but I would like to invite you to also do the same so that in
between meetings, you and I will be trying out new ideas and actions in practice, some
of which may work and some may not. However, in action research of this kind, it is an
important principle to question, make sense of and learn and therefore work towards
changing aspects of our practice for the better.
What will happen if I take part?
It involves meeting regularly as a group, probably once a month at a mutually
convenient place in the hospital. The meetings will be negotiated at the introductory
meeting but would probably be for about an hour and a half – two hours. The aim is to
have between 6-12 meetings. Again exact timings of these meetings will be decided
through negotiation by the group and ward manager.
Each time we meet we decide on a particular focus in relation to reflection-in-action.
We will share ideas, stories, questions, contradictions and then we will all go back into
practice to possibly try out the new ideas about our practice that has been learnt in the
group. The meetings will be taped and transcribed allowing us to rigorously make
309