Discussion and Conclusions
Findings showed a nursing culture where reflection was seen as a
process of searching for solutions to practice experiences, in order to
make sense of them. Student and teacher perceptions of reflection
included the critical analysis of feelings and knowledge in order to
lead to new perspectives about practice. Ultimately, reflection was
connected with a professional motivation to ‘move on’ and ‘do better’
within practice in order to learn from experience and critically examine
‘self’. This is comparable to descriptions of reflection by Dewey
(1933) and Schon (1987) regarding actively searching for solutions
to problems, and more recently by Freshwater et al. (2008) regarding
retrospectively making sense of experience in order to influence
future practice. It also has similarities with O'Donovan's (2007) findings
where reflection was described as a process of examining ‘self’
and practice in order to improve knowledge and future practice.