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.