Assignment Guidelines

You need to write a 3,000 word reflective account. The title of the assignment is:

A reflective account of the experience of working in an Interprofessional learning set.

The importance of the assignment for your professional development and future practice

This assignment is your opportunity to show your understanding of the importance of interprofessional working within health and social care.

You can do this by exploring and reflect on how you (self) and your colleagues in your learning set worked together on a given task (formative assessment).

Exploring your own behaviour and recognising and starting to explore how to manage “self” and “other’s” behaviour in your learning group will give you an insight into how you may function and develop your role within the interprofessional team.

Areas you should read about and include

During the module you will have started to explore the importance of understanding “self” within professional and social interactions. You will also be appreciating that “self” is a very complex, unique and a dynamic entity- changing and developing as you are exposed to different environments, knowledge and interactions.  Some parts of “self” being constructed from complex matrixes that arise from attitudes, values, beliefs, experiences, knowledge and understanding. This makes each and every one of us unique in the way we view the world and the knowledge we possess and share. We are all individual and highly complex and it is always good to remember that:

• No human comes with an instruction booklet
• Human behaviour defies any algorhythm

In the module we have observed that when you put individuals together to work on a task (eg. patient discharge)  the task does not always feature as the main priority.

What you often see is inter and intra personal dynamics manifesting themselves between team members; individuals taking on different roles; conflict; leadership and followership of varying degrees. These dynamics bring the group to life and are fascinating to explore e.g., which roles individuals adopt and; how individuals lead and follow, interfere, block and enhance the process.

In this essay you will need to read and consider materials relating to:

• Reflection- and in particular Gibb’s Model
• The importance of team work in health care policy and professionalism
• Service users
• Leadership
  • Types and impact
  • Followership
• Team working
  • What makes a successful team?
  • Team roles e.g. the work of Belbin, Tuckman;
  • What may happen in teams e.g.: Risky shift; change of decision; conformity; group think; obedience
  • Group size
  • Team motivation and team values
  • The impact of status and power
  • Barriers to team working and strategies for enhancing team working

• Communication
  • Assertion
  • Managing conflict
• Tools for self-development, self-awareness

Suggestions for structuring assignment

This assignment is a reflective report. This means that you can use headings and sub-headings to help structure your writing. When you write a reflection the reader will expect to learn about your personal experience, feelings, ideas and opinions.  Therefore you can use the first person (I, my, me).

Introduction

This section will tell the reader what you are going to cover and should include something about:

• Importance of teamwork in contemporary health service- some good and poor exemplars
• How reflection may be used as a tool to explore phenomena and development-
• Introduce Gibbs’ Model and let reader know how you will use the model to structure your paper e.g. the 6 stages.

Description

To set the scene you need to explain what you are reflecting on to your reader. Perhaps include background information, such as what it is you’re reflecting on and tell the reader who was involved. It’s important to remember to keep the information provided relevant and to-the-point. Don’t waffle on about details that aren’t required – if you do this, you’re just using up valuable words that you’ll get minimal marks for.

Feelings

Discuss your feelings and thoughts about the experience. Consider questions such as: How did you feel at the time? What did you think at the time? What did you think about the incident afterwards? You can discuss your emotions honestly, but make sure to remember at all times that this is an academic piece of writing, so avoid ‘chatty’ text.

Evaluation

For your evaluation, you need to discuss how well you think things went. Perhaps think about: How did you react to the situation, and how did other people react? What was good and what was bad about the experience? If you are writing about a difficult incident, did you feel that the situation was resolved afterwards? Why/why not? This section is a good place to include the theory and the work of other authors – remember it is important to include references.

Analysis

Analysis In your analysis, consider what might have helped or hindered the event. You also have the opportunity here to compare your experience with the literature you have read. This section is very important, particularly for higher level writing. Many students receive poor marks for reflective assignments for not bringing the theory and experience together. For example try to explain what you have noted by linking it to the theory. E.g. Belbin’s teams- did your group members adopt any of these? What is your role type? Why is it important?

Conclusion to your reflections

In your conclusion, it is important to acknowledge: whether you could have done anything else; what you have learned from the experience; consider whether you could you have responded in a different way. If you are talking about a positive experience discuss whether you would do the same again to ensure a positive outcome. Also consider if there is anything you could change to improve things even further. If the incident was negative tell your reader how you could have avoided it happening and also how you could make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Action Plan

This section sums up anything you need to know and do to improve for next time. Perhaps you feel that you need to learn about something or attend some training. Could you ask your tutor or placement supervisor for some advice? What can you do which means you will be better equipped to cope with a similar event?

Essay Conclusion

In clearly-written sentences, you restate the main premise of your essay, make a brief summary of your evidence and finish with some sort of judgment about the topic. Excellent conclusions are those grounded in theories and literature that form an integral part of the overall assignment.

It is always a good idea to start your academic conclusion with transitional words such as ‘In summary’, ‘To conclude’; ‘In conclusion’, ‘Finally’, to help you to get the feel of wrapping up what you have said.

The conclusion is not the place to present new facts that are not in the body of your essay. Your conclusion, therefore, should have no references unless you come up with a ‘punchy’ quote from a special source as a final word.