Becoming a Reflective Practitioner, 6th Edition

CHAPTER 16Guiding First Year NursingStudents

Christopher Johns

Introduction

Guidance is the primary teaching mode. Guidance aims to enable practitioners to reflect deeper on their tentative insights, to gain new perspectives and insights. All guidance is contracted with the students so that students and guides are secure and mindful of their respective responsibilities to ensure their effectiveness.

To reiterate the essence of guidance (see Chapter 6) the guide:

• Reminds the students about the rules of dialogue, especially for novice students.
• Picks up issues from the last session.
• Invites students to share their experiences which they have reflected on using the MSR, reminding other group members to listen carefully with openness and respect.
• Listens attentively, prompting the students as necessary, facilitating reflection reinforcing the value of the MSR cues.
• Invites the students’ peers to engage from the perspective of their own experiences.
• Asks the students to consider how each of them might respond if they were in the practitioner’s shoes and for the practitioner to consider alternative, more effective, ways of responding given the situation again. The group generates a range of options and offer these to the practitioner to consider alongside their own options and the potential consequences.
• Inputs theory as appropriate to inform the debate and points the way to other knowledge sources for the group to pursue before the next session.
• ‘Wraps up’ the session by asking ...