Reflection, the way to professional development? (journal article)

type of article: academic
class that forced me to read it: PSPR
avx online? yes
useful? if you have a birdcage that needs lining, maybe
tolerated? the sheer volume of uselessness made me seasick

Gustafsson, C. & Fagerberg, I. (2004). Reflection, the way to professional development? Journal of clinical nursing, 13, 271-280.

I had high hopes for this article, I truly did. I was hoping to find an academic study that would justify my Piscean penchant for navel-gazing. Instead, I found more evidence that I have no excuse for not having published or conducted research yet. It can't be that difficult to get past peer review if I am seeing articles like this in print.

The "phenomenographic" method was used in this study, which consisted of the interviews of four RNs who were hand-picked for being believed to use "reflective practice". The stunning conclusion of the study was that these nurses affirmed that reflecting on their past practice was useful to shaping their future practice.

Thanks for clearing that up, guys.

The authors committed various academic sins, such as inventing catchphrases ("to meet the unique") with neither explanation nor apology. Grammar was unacceptably uneven; this is explained if not excused by the fact that the study took place in Sweden. Finally, the authors stopped far short of their goal "to recognize the advantages of reflective practice and how and when to use such measures" (Gustafsson & Fagerberg, 2004). The closest they came was a line diagram, borrowed from a study from several years before, which did nothing to flesh out the idea of their model for professional development in nursing.

I would skip this article and go directly to one of the sources it cites: From Novice To Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice by P. Benner. I am going to chase down a few of the other references to see if there's anything there worth reading.