Mental Health Nurse Reflection Essay

This narrative is a reflection on my development as a health care professional. I will ponder on the start of my mental health nursing programme, my fears and feelings on commencing my training. I will reflect on the skills I had when I began my study, the skills I have learnt since I started training and the skills I will need to learn to develop as a capable healthcare professional. I will include an action plan on how I should be able to acquire the skills I need to improve my learning experience and that are essential to my becoming a competent mental health Nurse. When I was offered admission to study mental health nursing I was overjoyed and at the same time nervous. I grew up in West Africa where I went to primary and secondary school. …show more content…
When we first started this course we were given an orientation exercise in which we learned how to use the library, how to search for and borrow books and how to access information technology. My knowledge of computers was fairly limited at the start of my degree but I have since learned how to use information technology for research, how to use Word document for writing essays and how to use information technology for planning.
According to Jasper (2003, p1), ‘Reflection is essential and is an important way of learning’. Reflection involves thinking back on learning and practice and developing insights to understand and improve future learning and practice. I can relate to Jasper (2003, p4) who said “most of us reflect continuously every day as human beings in order to survive but we probably do not realise that we are reflecting ”. Since commencing my study in Nursing I have come to appreciate reflection as a powerful tool for professional development. Reflection forces us to weigh up our strengths and weaknesses. Reflection makes us to look deep within ourselves. Donald Schon (1995) describes two types of reflection: Reflection in action which involves