Reflecting on practice can improve nurses’ well-being and enhance care, NMC says

Joint statement with other regulators gives advice on getting the most out of reflection

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has urged nurses to reflect on their practice to aid their personal and career development, and boost well-being.

The council has joined forces with eight other health and care regulators to sign a statement that emphasises the benefits and importance of reflective practice for individuals and teams.

Meaningful insight

The statement includes the following advice:

• Teams should be encouraged to make time for reflection, as a way of aiding development, improving well-being and deepening professional commitment.
• The statement gives guidance on how to get the most out of reflection, including having a structured approach.
• Any experience, positive or negative, and however small – such as a conversation with a colleague – can generate meaningful insight and learning.
• Multidisciplinary and professional team reflection can help develop ideas and improve practice.

‘Honest thinking’

NMC chief executive Andrea Sutcliffe said: ‘In these challenging times for health and social care, it’s so important that collectively we do all we can to support our health and care professionals, and their employers, in devoting time to individual, reflective, personal and honest thinking.

‘While the health and care system may be at full stretch, we know from our own revalidation work that reflective practice helps professionals, employed across all manner of health and care settings, to really focus on how they can demonstrate they are living the standards as set out in the Code.’

Other regulators that contributed to the statement include the General Medical Council, General Dental Council and the Health and Care Professions Council.

Read the joint statement

Benefits of becoming a reflective practitioner

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