Reflection, Knowledge and Daily Practice

This book is concerned with the concepts of reflection, nursing knowledge and ward context. It inquires and analyzes how reflection is experienced by practicing nurses in the medical wards. The literature, the curriculum and statutory bodies of nursing accept reflection as a heuristic tool aiming at tuning the practitioner into each clinical situation, enabling the verbalization of professional judgement and clinical decision-making through conscious and rational thought processes. However, in the ward context nurses are socialized into a practice culture, which is based on power relationships, control and excessive direction. Such cultural and organizational factors have a restrictive effect on the implementation of reflection in practice. This book covers a wide range of themes such as reflection, nursing knowledge, theories on practice development and practice models, critical analysis theories, discourse and educational theories. This book will assist clinicians, educationalists and policy makers in developing an in-depth understanding of the ward context and the barriers in implementing reflection in the clinical setting.