There is one piece of formal coursework for this module
Assessment and Reassessment detail and Guidance

3000 word reflective report
This reflective report should focus on a communication event. The event can involve yourself and a
patient/carer, or yourself and another practitioner. The essential feature is that the issue is one in
which you were personally involved and you reflect on how you handled the situation, not on how
the other people involved handled the situation.
Writing the report

– TRY TO USE OF AN EVERYDAY INTERACTION RATHER THAN AN EXCEPTIONAL ONE
– THE INTERACTION DOES NOT NECESSARILY NEED TO BE A NEGATIVE ONE

Reflect on a communication incident that you encountered whilst working in the clinical environment.

You may use any one of the reflective models that have been suggested, but note that the aim of this assignment is not to produce a description/evaluation of reflective practice but to demonstrate that you are able to perform reflective practice. It is sufficient to state in your introduction that you have based your assignment around a particular model and to give a more detailed description of this model in the appendix. With any reflective assignment you will need to begin with a description of the event. This should be included in the appendix (2 sides of A4) and does not count towards the final word count.

However, you should use this as a point of reference in the main text. This description should include an
outline of the event (what happened), as well as how you felt, and any contributing factors you felt
were relevant to the situation occurring (e.g. patient anxiety/ long waiting times), from this you
should be able to decide what the most important factors that warrant reflection were. Your ability
to tease out the most important themes is one area that is being assessed. It is acceptable to write
in first person in this description.

The structure of your assignment will vary depending on the situation you are discussing and on the
model you have used to guide your essay. However, the introduction should include an outline of
what you will be discussing (remember communication events are very broad and there may have
been a number of factors that were relevant, it will not be possible to discuss all these factors and the introduction is an opportunity for you to tell the reader exactly what your focus will be). You
might also use the introduction to briefly mention the reflective model that you have used.

The main body of the assignment is where you present the theoretical arguments that support or
refute your actions. It is very easy to use assertion and anecdotal evidence here but remember to
reference and to link that literature back to what happened in the scenario. If you feel that the
correct approach would have been to use more explanations with a patient, then you will need to
provide a reference that supports your claim.

Depending on the topic you have chosen you will draw on theory to support your arguments e.g. counseling, psychology, sociology. It is through these theories that you will need to critisise how effectively your situation was dealt with – it is this that demonstrates your reflective skills and again is one of the key areas that will gain you marks.

Tip 1. LINK the theory to your situation
Tip 2. Only include theory that is relevant to your situation
Tip 3. It is tempting to use too include too much information.

In your conclusion it is important to tie together the themes of your assignment i.e. it should be linked to the introduction and the theoretical discussion, do not present new literature here. Marks are gained for clearly stating the correct course of action should the situation arise again.
It is envisaged that the reflection and theoretical considerations will occur simultaneously, rather than mutually exclusive sections. Tying together the main points you have learnt in the conclusion/action plan. It is tempting to write in 1st person and to provide anecdotal evidence to support actions. It is
important to avoid this as marks will be lost for not writing academically.