An enquiry into nurse educators' beliefs, understandings and approaches to teaching the concepts of reflection to adult student nurses in UK Higher Education Institutes

The approaches taken in teaching reflection to adult student nurses varies across the UK despite national curriculum outcomes from the professional statutory and regulatory body, The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). This study highlights pertinent aspects of the various approaches to teaching, the inclusion of theory and the roles of the student, mentor and nurse lecturers in the utilisation of reflection to develop professional knowledge from experiences. Ethical approval was gained to conduct the study, utilising a case study approach, including nurse lecturers and curriculum documentation from a range of NMC accredited Higher Education Institutes across the UK. Semi structured interviews were conducted face to face with all participants in their home sites. Curriculum documentation used with students such as lecture notes, slides, module and programme handbooks and practice assessment documents were also collated in order to understand and analyse the approaches taken to teaching reflection. These two main data sources (interviews and curriculum documents) were also complemented by the use of field notes and a researcher journal in order to gain deeper understanding of the detail during data collection. A thematic analysis of the interview data and curriculum documents was undertaken to highlight and explore patterns and assist in the emergence of a theme and subthemes. Following in depth data analysis, the findings of this study detail an overarching theme of safe and caring practices, alongside three subthemes: II ´éÀ Personal and Professional Dimensions of Reflection ´éÀ Dimensions of Reflection in Nurse Education ´éÀ Articulation of Practice Although the publication of the Francis Inquiry (2013) was unanticipated at the inception of this research, it has shown to be a very important factor in analysing the data. The issue of patient safety that arose during data collection and became evident during analysis align closely to the publication of this significant report. The findings from this study are timely as the review of standards for nurse education and mentoring are underway. The findings from this study will also contribute to strengthening the student nurse role in assuring the best standards of care in the practice setting are achieved in order to improve patient safety through thoughtful approaches.