Reflective Practice (RP)

Personal interest & experience in RP

Like many of my veterinary student colleagues, I was confused by discrepancies between our formal University training and our experiences of "seeing practice" in real veterinary practices during the vacation. Sadly there was little or no structured reflection on our "real world" experiences, so we learned to adopt a "schizophrenic" split between what was appropriate "truth" for examination purposes, and what was appropriate "truth" as far as working in the real world was concerned.

For example some University "truths" were economically unsustainable in the real world where clients had to "foot the bill" for sophisticated laboratory investigations or prolonged treatment procedures. Likewise, some veterinary practice "truths" (e.g. diagnoses based on scant clinical or laboratory investigation) were little more than self-serving expediency when viewed from the safe confines of the University classroom.

I always resented this fragmentation of the science and art of veterinary medicine, and longed for some unifying approach which could reconcile and, where possible, integrate the diverse perspectives of the perfectionist results-orientated, securely salaried, academic and the expedient client-relationship-and-income focussed practitioner.

If only I had discovered RP earlier, a lot of soul-searching and confusion could have been avoided!

Later in life I became interested in human health and healing and developed a growing awareness that our health problems are very lifestyle-derived. To my horror I found that we persistently contribute to our own demise by the twin prisons of low self-awareness and low awareness of alternative (healthier) ways of living.

Reflective Practice Index...
 
Introduction
What is RP? What does RP offer?
What does RP look like?
The "Sunflower Health" Reflective Protocol
RP for School & College Teachers
References & Additional Resources
Personal interest & experience
Author details