Section 3: A reflection on the work with your other group members of the module.

Reflective Practice is a process that provides opportunities for teaching, learning and understanding; it plays a very important role when it comes to the individual continuing professional development.  When healthcare students establish a systematic enquiry in to their professional development, they are able to understand how when the get the professional and how well they can practice it (Jacobs, 2016).  By looking at my actions and experiences, it means that I have the ability to grow on my own. 

As a student or qualified nurse, I am responsible for providing care to the best of my ability to patients and their families focusing on my knowledge, skills and behaviour to ensure that I can meet the demands made on me by this commitment (NMC, 2015; United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, 1992). 

Being a part of the service improvement Conference with different inter professional in the Health sector revealed areas of strengths and weaknesses, which need further development both individually and as a group. For instance, I came across multiple communication barriers which necessitated additional time and effort to communicate effectively in order to be heard.  Among the communication barriers that I experienced with my multidisciplinary team was agreeing on the best therapy for the patient because I first did not understand her condition.  I also found it difficult to take her situation to heart and show emotion during the time of the project and I felt this is a failure.  Even though  it is maintained by the NMC  that  nurses should be able to empower patients in their level of care and minimize the risk related to the patient, I felt that the principle of beneficence should be balanced against non-maleficence ( doing harm).  Each process was also documented as part of the care plan and filed as a soft copy. Communication also entails good record keeping which is part of nursing practice, and ensures that there is an effective level of care. Communication was also important as it would ensure the team agree on the approaches to be used in meeting the patient needs and educating the patient family on the treatment and rehabilitation process. 

Also when looking at the aspect of leadership, this was very integration in the multidisciplinary team approach.  Leadership allowed all participants to speak in one voice. There was documentation of each member contribution to Alice care for which leadership provided direction on the next approach.  It ensured that all aspect of care have been discussed and documented for implementation. 

As leadership is one of the major factors that determines whether an organisation succeeds or fails (Simkins, 2005), nurses can refer to leadership theories to guide their actions (Clark, 2009). The group leader emerged early on, taking her role seriously throughout the collaborative and on-line group work. She presented authentic leadership skills, which can be classified as genuine, trustworthy, credible, reliable and believable (Clark, 2009). Moreover, she demonstrated courage and coached us to exceed certain capacities to achieve higher levels of performance (Kouzes and Posner, 1991). In addition, good leadership nurtures team dynamics and communication, encourages problem solving and accepts change (McKibben, 2017). This was witnessed in our group when we all communicated on-line and managed to contribute effectively to Section 1 within the assignment. 

I also found that the use of online communication tools is vital in Continued Professional Development. Online communication tools that were utilized in this project included mobile phone applications like Zoom, Whatsapp and Skype (Schickedanz et al., 2013). These tools proved to be a lot of success since I enable us share ideas online even when we did not afford physical meetings. Also when one had an idea for multidisciplinary team practice, one would easily post it on the whatsapp group chart where we would be able to see and act on it.  Online communication tool are also important when it comes to patient care. It ensures that the care provided is able to monitor the progress of the patient at the comfort of their office.  Doctors are also able to give instructions to the patient from any part of the world and the patient can be able to diarize her progress (Schickedanz et al., 2013).  Online communication tools are also important as it limits the number of people meeting together as a crowd, and ensures that team members only post items that can be of benefit to the patient. 

In my next placement I will have the opportunity to continue my professional development (CPD) and reflect on my progress to increase self-awareness, confidence and competence. I have learned that part of the responsibility