Maria Lavinia Ungur

 

The value and application of critical thinking in practice -by maria-lavinia.ungur20@bathspa.ac.uk 

   “Critical thinking is the ability to verify assumptions utilizing available, tangible, and verifiable data and facts” (Open Minds, 2017).

 

   In order to develop as a person and professional is crucial to think critically and to be open-minded. That cannot be done without reflecting on experienced past events, questioning own beliefs, values and assumptions, bringing up and rethinking errors and failures that have occurred, as well as the actions that have ended in success. Critical thinking involves orientation on details, patterns, constant analysis of own and other people’s actions, internal and external influences, active listening and the ability to make decisions. The important point while engaging in critical thinking is the elimination of cognitive biases. Critical thinking cannot be based on emotions or unwarranted assumptions, only on pure logic and strong evidence (Critical Thinking Academy, 2021).

   While there are many benefits to critical thinking there are some disadvantages too. Overthinking is probably the biggest limitation to the development of correct critical thinking. Constantly reliving and reviewing past event there is a high risk of falling into a depressive closed repetitive circle of overthinking, which could lead to anxiety and depression and even mental exhaustion (Open Minds, 2017). That is why before engaging in reflection on the past in a critical manner, the knowledge of how to do it right is needed. As mentioned above, the emotional aspect, mainly the blame element, should not be a part of the process, as it is nor beneficial nor leads to any future improvement. The understanding that most of the practices involve error element and that mistakes are part of learning is a good starting point of reflective critical practice.

 

 

   The observation, attention to smallest details, reflection on own actions, elimination of personal biases, analytical skills and ability to bring everything together increases the potential to make well-informed decisions in practice (Open Minds, 2017). One of the oldest critical thinking tools is the Greek philosopher’s Socrates method called The Socratic Method (Nelson, 1980). This type of “teaching” is not a usual method where those learning are provided with information and get their questions answered by the one who is teaching. Is a reverse process that works opposite, when the teacher asks a question instead of providing answers, in this way dragging learners out of their comfort zone in order “to realise that they actually know what they did not know they knew” (Nelson, 1980, p. 34).

   The overload of information that arose from the growth of electronic networks, rapid and complex changes in the millennial society accelerated the need for critical thinking in order to solve the chaos of fast-changing environment and more demanding public (Jones-Devitt & Smith, 2007). Moreover, the holistic and person-centred care approach requires professionals to be more critical in their practice instead of just following routine procedures. In other words, professionals are moving away from a one-fit-all approach to individually orientated care practice that empowers the clients and encourages their participation in their own care plan arrangements. In 1977 Barnett stated that the ascendancy has initiated the shift to professional competency rather than some developed routine procedures, and that only could be achieved by developing the professional ability “to question the question” (Jones-Devitt & Smith, 2007, p. 8).

In health and social care practice knowledge, personal professional skills and competency alongside awareness and personal reflective habit, enables one to notice human errors, safeguard the people in their care, identify inconsistency, wrong practices or blame culture and, if necessary, “blow the whistle” in a timely manner. In other words, adapting reflective thinking routine and applying critical thinking skills to professional practice on daily basis could enhance clients’ satisfaction level, improve organisational sustainability and overall performance, increase personal professional competence and even save someone’s life.

 

References:

Jasper, 2013. ELS. [Online]
Available at: https://www.qmu.ac.uk/media/5533/reflection-2014.pdf
[Accessed 26 May 2021].

Jones-Devitt, S. & Smith, L., 2007. Critical Thinking in Health and Social Care. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Kinsella, E. A., 2010. The art of reflective practice in health and social care: reflections on the legacy of Donald Schön. Reflective Practice. International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 8 September, 11(4), pp. 565-575. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2010.506260

Kolb, D. A., 1984. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs(New Jersey): Prentice Hall. [pdf]
Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Kolb-2/publication/235701029_Experiential_Learning_Experience_As_The_Source_Of_Learning_And_Development/links/00b7d52aa908562f9f000000/Experiential-Learning-Experience-As-The-Source-Of-Learning-And-Development.pdf                                                                                                             [Accessed 26 May 2021].

Levey, S., 2013. Linked in. [Online]
Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140623213931-156563678-giving-feedback-with-the-desc-model
[Accessed 28 May 2021].

Nelson, L., 1980. The Socratic Method. Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children, 2(2), pp. 34-38. https://doi.org/10.5840/thinking1980228

Oelofsen, N., 2012. Developing Reflective Practice. Banbury : Lantern Publishing Limited.

Open Minds, 2017. Open Minds. [Online]
Available at: https://openminds.com/next-generation-forum/blog/value-critical-thinking-skills/#:~:text=Critical%20thinkers%20can%20reflect%20on,to%20inform%20their%20decision%20making.
[Accessed 27 May 2021].

The University of Edinburgh, 2019. www.ed.ac.uk. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle
[Accessed 26 May 2021].

Timminsa, F., Murphya, M., Howeb, R. & Dennehyb, C., 2013. “I hate Gibb’s reflective cycle 1998” (Facebook©2009): Registered nurses’ experiences of supporting nursing students’ reflective practice in the context of student’s public commentary. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, October, 93(21), p. 1371 – 1375. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.046

Aveyard, H. (2015) (2013) A Beginner's Guide To Critical Thinking And Writing In Health And Social Care (UK Higher Education Humanities & Social Sciences Health & Social Welfare). Paperback.

Fook, J. (2012. 1st Edition. Critical Reflection in Context: Applications in Health and Social Care Routledge

Free Ethical Learning and Development Resource for People and Organisationshttp://www.businessballs.com/reflective-practice.htm

The Foundation for Critical Thinking website for Students and Professional                    www.Criticalthinking.org

Nursing Times Journal                                                                              https://www.nursingtimes.net/publication-index/

Examples of Health and Social Care online Blogs

https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog

https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/socialcareworkforce/

https://www.icarehealth.co.uk/blog/

Week 3

Define reflective practice and how and why is it important for HSC

Reflective practice can be defined as an observation of the activities that are performed by an individual by working on a particular project. The concept of reflective practice is linked to the learning experience of the individual and how the individual conceptualizes and uses those theories for the purpose of experimenting with activity over the next period of life. According to the studies developed by Rodgers et al. (2016), the reflective study turns out to be a matter of strong integrity when it comes to students and other educated individuals. The concept of reflective practice can also be defined as a dynamic action-based and skills based on ethical legislations that is practically used in complicated work scenarios. There are various stages involved in reflective practice it helps an individual to learn effectively and objectify the entire learning procedure in a number of consecutive structured practices involved.

Reflective practice is one of the most important aspects of learning when it comes to health and social care. By the studies to Koshy et al. (2017), reflective practice helps the individual who is working on health and social care to analyse and further develop skills that involve strengths and weaknesses that might help to improve the learning experience and knowledge of that individual. Apart from this, the application of reflection in the field of social and healthcare will help to enhance the quality of content that's the individual should be putting out on the blog and this will help to maintain the authenticity of the contents that the individuals put on the blog.

Blog experiences

During the preparation and creation of this particular blog, I had been successful in developing certain experiences. The first of which was getting acquainted with the interface of the website where the blog was supposed to be made. Getting acquainted with the interface was one of the most difficult tasks as I did not have a technological background. Apart from this, the framing of the entire blog for the purpose of informing the general public of the country on topics of healthcare and social care was another key experience for me as it involved a practical presentation that would guide the citizens to live a healthy and safe life.

 

Title of the Blog

The blog has been titled “Ethical Issues for Online Health And Social Care Bloggers”.

Reflective Evaluation

For the purpose of reflective evaluation, Kolb's reflective cycle will be used in order to highlight all the learning experiences and the application of the studies that are obtained to highlight experimentation of the knowledge in future. The first step of this particular reflective cycle is the development of concrete experience. While generating this particular blog, I have the experience of the technical requirements that a person should know in order to design a website. I have experienced the importance of communication skills that is of utmost requirement in order to make my message reach my readers. The next step involved in this particular reflective cycle is reflective observation. I have observed the importance of knowing internet technology for the purpose of framing and developing a successful blog.

 The third step in this particular cycle is abstract conceptualization. The blog helps me to understand and conceptualize the importance of online health and social care in the midst of the pandemic that is restricted people to their houses which has been a reason for mental stress. The final step of this particular cycle is active experimentation. After going through the various stages of this particular reflective cycle, I have learnt to apply the basics of internet technology and blog designing in various areas of my study for the purpose of enhancing the interaction and engagement with the readers and the audiences.

Week 5

Define critical thinking

Critical thinking can be defined as a disciplined process that is intellectually described as a process of active and skilful conceptualization apart from application and evaluation of the overall concept. The theory of observation and experience is one of the most essential topics in the theory of critical thinking. The entire theory of critical thinking is based on intellectually designed values that are described to derive the core of the subject and also to maintain the higher values of clarity, precision and consistency. The theory of critical thinking occurs due to the fact of motivation that is relevant as a driving force for the development of critical thinking on the topic of consideration. Critical thinking is one of the main ideas of conceptual and intellectual integrity that would help to lay the foundations of future development of the hypothesis that is created from critical thinking.

The concept of critical thinking is based on an individually describe problem. Critical thinking is more of a mode of thinking then that a describable process to make an access towards the conclusion. Through the application of critical thinking, the quality of the reasoning process can be improved and therefore, the results derived from the application of critical thinking helps to conclude at suitable inferences.  A critical thinker is a patron of critical and important questions that can be well framed and formulated with active precision. Communication is also an important topic of consideration that helps to to overcome the theories of egocentrism and social centrism.

Critical Analysis

Critical analysis or evaluation can be defined as a form of writing a critique that would help to analyse and evaluate a thesis for the purpose of increasing the awareness of the topic that has been described by the author. The primary and the most important step of critical analysis is the identification of a thesis that has been stated by the author and also the evaluate the structure on which the hypothesis is based. There are a number of phrases that help to identify whether an analysis is critical or not. These phrases include likewise, on the contrary, on the other hand, similarly and more.

Week 7

Through this reflective journal entry, I will discuss different types of ethical dilemmas or ethical issues faced by the online HSC bloggers, along with some solutions that I think will be appropriate and applicable to deal with the challenges. While I was researching the blog topic, I found that there was certain number of challenges faced by the service users due to the ethical dilemmas created by online HSC bloggers. For example, while I try to found the accuracy level of the information given by the bloggers, I was surprised by seeing that most of them use general or unauthentic sites for getting the information. There are more than 1000+ unauthentic sites and therefore, it becomes too easy for them to find any kind of information for their blogs. Based on the recent pandemic of COVID-19, the ethical dilemma becomes much clearer to me, as there was numerous information revolving around the blogging sites, which does not have any connection to the disease or its remedy. Hence, I think at this point, the online bloggers also face an ethical dilemma as they know that the information included by them in their blogs are not 100% proved and therefore, it might create confusion among the readers. On the other hand, the online HSC bloggers also put confidential information sometimes to prove the authenticity of their blogs, which is also an unethical practice in the field of Health and Social care. Ethical dilemmas might also increase due to this practice, as in most of the cases, the online bloggers do not have the consent of the family or the person to share or reveal their information in a public platform. I found a number of online blog sites where the bloggers put different images and medical data. Based on this, I can assume that a group of people suffering from similar health issues or symptoms might try to intake or consume the same drugs or similar kind of treatment without consulting doctors. This might be extremely harmful for the patients and their family members as well.

While trying to find out the solutions, I have applied the paths of critical thinking, about which I have already written in my previous journal entry. According to my research, critical thinking requires a first stage of observation, which I already have done while collecting information about the ethical dilemmas created and faced by online HSC bloggers. Now, the 2nd stage is analysis of the collected findings, at which stage I have found that a numerous number of HSC bloggers are creating such online dilemmas and thus, it becomes a major issue for the readers or service users, especially for those who are suffering from any kind of chronic disease. I have understood that this problem is so deeply rooted in the practice, and hence, it could not be solved easily. As per the 3rd stage of critical thinking, I think, based on my experience, there should be some restricted rules and regulations for the online bloggers, to prevent them from using unauthentic information on public platforms.  On the other hand, the online bloggers should also need to follow the WHO bulletins or other government sites for getting the most updated and relevant information. Additionally, as per my understanding, proper consent should be taken from the family members and the patients if they want to share the details of any critical disease as well.