This page is designed to answer the following questions:
- 2.2d Describe how reflecting on a situation has improved their own knowledge, skills and understanding (Care Certificate, Standard 2: Your Personal Development)
- 4.2 Describe how reflecting on a situation has improved own knowledge, skills and understanding (Level 2 Diploma in Care, Personal development in care settings)
- 5.2 Explain how reflective practice has led to improved ways of working (Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care, Promote personal development in care settings)
- 4.2 Demonstrate how reflective practice has contributed to improved ways of working (Level 4 Diploma in Adult Care, Personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings)
NOTE: This page has been quality assured for 2023 as per our Quality Assurance policy.
Reflecting on situations you have encountered in your role as a health and social care worker is a great way to maximise the learning from your experiences and improve your practice.
NOTE: Further information on reflective practice can be found here.
To achieve this assessment criteria, you could explain a situation you have been in and how you reflected on it later, either by yourself or as part of a group. You will want to highlight anything that didn’t go quite as well as expected and why. You will also explore what you could do in a similar future situation to make it run more smoothly. If you have had a similar situation and handled it differently due to the insights you gained from your reflection, even better.
Maybe you’ve been in a predicament where a client has not wanted to take their medication, and the more that you have persisted and nagged, the more they have stubbornly refused. Upon reflection, you may have concluded that it would have been better if you had been more laid-back and simply said to the client to come and find you when they’re ready.
Or perhaps there’s been a situation where you’ve accused someone of something that they were later found to be innocent of. By virtue of self-reflection, you may have learned not to point the finger without substantial evidence.
Case Study: An example of reflective practice in health and social care
Last Christmas, a client with a learning disability (who gets very excited around this time of year) was due to go home to stay with his parents from Xmas eve to Boxing Day. Unexpectedly, he wanted to come home early after dinner on Xmas Day, which staff facilitated (as we had a contingency rota in place).
He wouldn’t tell us why he wanted to come back as he has a great relationship with his family. Having reflected on the situation, I remembered that he had presents in his house that he was saving to unwrap when he came home. Because he gets very excited about unwrapping presents, I realised that this was the reason he had wanted to return. The next year, we ensured that he had taken all his Xmas presents with him.