Incorporating serviceaccomplishments into pre-registration curriculum to enhance reflective practice

Much emphasis is being placed on the importance of reflective practice as a means to ensure thatpractitioners an competent in their practice. It is therefore important to ensure that student nurses acquire these reflective silk as part of their development throughout pre-registration curricula. Although reflective practice is seen as a major part of curricula activity, the style in which reflection is advocated takes many different formats. Strategies for developing reflection which focus on outcomes for students can become subjectivea and fail to place healthcare practice within the context of social structures and values. This paper offers a framework for reflection that promotes an outlook which is both objective and subjective, based un Mezirowʹs six levels of reflection (as adapted by Powell 1989) and OʹBrienʹs (1987) five service accomplishments. Focus of reflection within the wider context of society and healthcare policy should enable development of a practitioner who is both competent in practice and can analyse and evaluate their practice.