Farai Makoni
Buckinghamshire New University, UK
Title: Reflective practice meetings as an aspect of inter-professional education: A cross pollination of multi-disciplinary perspectives within Health, Education and Social care
Biography
Biography: Farai Makoni
Abstract
Reflective practice has gained prominence within the health, education and social care sectors in particular within the United Kingdom (UK). This prominence has been driven and shaped by differing assertions and counter-assertions about the relevance of reflective approaches in shaping collaborative enterprises that may help meet patient satisfaction and outcomes agendas. Given the competing assertions within the literature discourse, an emerging model is proposed in order to make a connection between the significance and relevance of reflective practice meetings (RPMs) as an aspect of inter-professional education and its application within clinical contexts. Emphasis is placed on how professionals engage with the cross-disciplinary viewpoints in order to help understand the nature of caring in differing caring contexts. Notably, some contributors within the literature sources posit that a divergence of opinion about the contribution of RPMs as an aspect of inter-professional education exists. For example, some note that inter-professional education (IPE) represents a particular challenge for those engaged with the task of facilitating knowledge construction and knowledge transfer due to the social power issues, real or perceived, as reflected within different professional disciplines. Advocates for IPE postulate that individuals have to utilize IPE as something that helps professionals from diverse and distinct disciplines to identify the different lenses that help to foster a collaborative ethos within a context of shifting priorities. Consequently, engaging with the differing viewpoints within an RPM context may contribute to how IPE is conceptualized for example is it about informing, conforming or transforming professional discourse. This paper reports on a Qualitative study conducted within a Secure Forensic Adolescent Mental Health setting in the UK. The study offers findings that have a potential to aid an understanding of the theoretical and practical implications of utilizing Reflective Practice Meetings as an aspect of IPE. The study explored the processes that occur during the weekly inter-professional reflective practice meetings within a Secure Forensic Mental Health Adolescent Unit. The study was informed by a case study approach underpinned by ethnographic tenets. Data collection methods utilized included discursive methods complemented by Participant Observations (PO). Additionally, data was gathered through Reflective logs and one-to-to semi-structured interviews. Data collection triangulation methods for completeness of the phenomenon were utilized. An eclectic data analysis process was utilized notably; the analytical lens utilized within this study was informed by a combination of grounded theory approaches with social-psychology discourse analysis framework.