In today's fast-paced world, reflecting effectively is not just a skill; it is a kind of superpower. Gibbs reflective cycle is an organised approach to recalling your past experiences that enables you, healthcare professionals, and lifelong learners to turn everyday moments into meaningful insights. This guide will explore its six stages, why use the Gibbs reflective cycle in nursing, how to apply it in real life, and its significance in reflective writing. Plus, pros, cons, and some common mistakes. So what are you waiting for? Read this blog to expand your knowledge!
What is Gibbs Reflective Cycle?
Gibbs Reflective Cycle is a framework and method used by many people around the world, but it's more than just an academic concept. It's a valuable tool that can assist leaders and professionals in turning an experience into something they can apply or use to improve their practice or decision-making. Moreover, a clear Gibbs reflective cycle explanation will help you review an event, analyse what occurred and analyse what feelings or reactions occurred during the event to develop a complete process for self-improvement and for personal and professional development.
Who Created Gibbs Reflective Cycle?
It was developed by American psychologist Graham Gibbs as a way to create structure around how we learn through our experiences. In his Gibbs reflective cycle 1988 text, Learning by Doing, Gibbs presented the framework to allow people to reflect on their own experiences and create improvement plans. The framework has proven to be extremely useful in many settings, including healthcare, education, and business. For more information, you can consult a reference for Gibbs reflective cycle to understand its origins and applications.
What Are the 6 Stages of Gibbs Reflective Cycle?
Gibbs' cycle of reflection consists of six different stages, which are named description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. To understand better, let's have a look at the section below.
Description: This is the first stage, which aims to record what has actually happened. Do not jump to a conclusion; concentrate on facts, a series of events, individuals involved, as well as the context.
Example:
What happened and at what time?
Who was involved?
What was the effect?
Feelings: This is the second stage, which encourages acknowledgement of emotional and cognitive responses. Thus, it influences decision-making and enables you to consider how emotions shape your behaviour and outcomes.
Example:
What emotions did you feel before, during and after the event?
What others may have felt?
What do those feelings suggest about your values?
Evaluation: In this stage, you evaluate the experience as it recognises what went well and what did not. It is vital to maintain balance and identify both strengths and weaknesses to prevent one-sided reflection.
Example:
What worked well and why?
What did not work?
How did my action affect the outcome?
Analysis: This is one of the vital stages. You go beyond description to know what happened. This involves connecting theory with practical practice and identifying patterns.
Example:
Why did things happen this way?
What theories or concepts were used to explain the occurrences?
What conversations and/or external factors contributed to them?
Conclusion: At this stage, you conclude what you have learned. With this, you gain new insights into your abilities and into others.
Example:
What lessons did I learn?
How can I apply these lessons to my future work?
What would I change in my actions if I had the chance to do it over?
Action Plan: This is the last stage in which you identify clear steps for progress. It turns reflection into practical actions, and without this stage, reflection can be theoretical and may not be directed to practical modifications.
Example:
What changes will I make in future?
What aid or resources will help me improve?
How will I measure whether I have improved?
A Real-Life Example of Gibbs Reflective Cycle Model in Nursing Practice
In this case, a nurse spoke with the family of a patient about the patient's end-of-life care. The nurse was unable to give an immediate answer to the question of how the patient's tests went, and this upset the family, which resulted in an emotional outburst from them.
Struggling To Create a Realistic Action Plan For Future Practice?
Get Expert Help To Turn Reflections Into Practical Action Plans
Description: A member of the patient's family got upset when I couldn't give an update on their loved one's test outcomes.
Feelings: While I was feeling frustrated and pressured, I had empathy for the family because they were obviously distressed.
Evaluation: I remained calm throughout our conversation; however, I did not provide sufficient reassurance in my explanations, which likely added to their level of stress and anxiety.
Analysis: By employing my critical thinking skills, I have realised that I focused primarily on following our procedures as opposed to showing compassion to the family. Therefore, I may not have addressed their emotional needs appropriately.
Conclusion: After reflecting upon the events in a critical manner, I could have used a more empathetic approach when communicating with the family and told them that I would proactively follow up with them once I received further information.
Action Plan: As I prepare for my future practice, I will enhance the way in which I communicate by acknowledging the family's feelings first, developing an understanding agreement with them about when they can expect updates regarding the safety of the patient, and making sure I provide the family with updates regarding the patient's condition and care as soon as possible.
With Gibbs reflective practice, you can reflect on the experience, identify areas for growth, and improve future nursing practice. However, if you still find it difficult to apply the Gibbs cycle in your assignment, feel free to get nursing assignment help.
Why Is Gibbs' Reflective Cycle Important in Reflective Writing?
There are various key reasons why use Gibbs reflective cycle in reflective writing. Here is the list below:
Provides structure: The Gibbs reflective cycle template provides a clear and easy-to-follow path, which prevents jumping to a conclusion.
Include emotions: It highlights the feelings and understanding of the significance of emotional responses, which leads to richer self-awareness.
Encourage deeper analysis: In Gibbs reflective framework, the analysis stages connect them to a reaction, which helps you learn why things actually happen.
Focus on actions: This stage makes sure that reflection leads to firm steps for future progress, which is valuable for skill development.
Facilitates continuous learning: Its cyclic nature is perfect for repeated experiences, which allow for repetitive learning and refinement.
Develops key competencies: It develops critical skills like self-awareness, emotional intelligence and decision-making, which are vital for various professions.
Gibbs' is a structured reflection model that transforms simple recounting into a tool for learning and development.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Gibbs' Model of Reflection
There are diverse pros and cons of the reflective learning cycle, Gibbs. Let's discuss them below one by one:
Advantages:
User-Friendly: The methodology of following the structured approach, step by step, is clear and straightforward to follow.
To Enhance Learning from Experience: Gibbs' cycle is an active process that encourages you to reflect while you are engaged in an activity by providing the link between what you have done and what you think.
To Challenge Assumptions and Promote Self-Improvement: The systematic reflection will allow you to identify your own biases and assumptions, supporting the development of you as an individual and the way you respond to others when they challenge you.
To Bridge the Gap Between Theory & Training: The use of a structured cycle allows individuals, through the use of theory, to make informed decisions and effectively integrate theory into a practice-based setting.
To Promote Continuous Professional Development: The Gibbs cycle model promotes ongoing education, assisting with the continual development and enhancement of professional skills to maintain professional competencies.
Disadvantages:
Superficial Reflection: Gibbs reflection model may only provide limited insight and, therefore, limit potential for improved nursing practice.
Neglecting Assumptions and Diverse Perspectives: Failure to recognise one's own biases and gain insights from other viewpoints can lead to partial understanding and reinforce blind spots.
Reflection Doesn't Guarantee Change: For reflection to be effective in promoting behaviour change, an individual must be committed to being self-aware and active in applying what they learned through their reflection process.
Action Planning is Crucial: Action plans are critical in connecting reflection with practice. If an individual does not create an action plan following their reflection, then they may not translate their reflectively gained knowledge into practice.
Potential for Prescriptiveness: Due to the format of Gibbs' six phases of reflection, the structured framework could limit the creativity involved in the reflective process if used prescriptively without authentic self-reflection.
A balanced evaluation of Gibbs' reflective cycle highlights that the model supports structured self-improvement and professional growth.
How to Write a Reflective Essay Using Gibbs Reflective Model?
To write a reflective essay using Gibbs reflective cycle example essay PDF, follow these six stages:
Description: Give a summary of the situation or experience.
Feelings: Describe how you felt at the moment and your initial reaction.
Evaluation: Talk about your successes and challenges.
Analysis: Discuss how this experience correlates with other research/theories.
Conclusion: Explain what you learned from this experience and how it changed you.
Action Plan: Define a plan for putting what you've learned into practice moving forward.
Understanding the stages of writing a reflective essay will help you write in an organised and thoughtful manner while developing your ability to analyse, evaluate, and learn from your experiences.
Common Mistakes Students Make Using Gibbs' Cycle of Reflection
Being Overly Descriptive: Simply stating what occurred without actually analysing how it affected you emotionally or mentally, or providing an in-depth evaluation of the experience.
Being Overwhelmed by Emotions: Skipping the feelings stage (often the worst part) or becoming so deeply entrenched in your emotions that you cannot process them and continue to grow from them.
Failing to Connect Theory & Practice: Discussing your opinions and actions based solely on personal experience without referencing any academic theories/models/evidence of how this occurred.
Superficial Reflection: Making vague goals like "I will do better next time" versus creating specific, measurable milestones for accomplishing those goals in the future.
Treating it as a Checklist: Completing all the stages, then processing them out of obligation rather than learning from them.
Lack of Honesty & Self-Awareness: Avoiding painful truths or admitting when you are incorrect or misguided.
Final Thoughts
Structure reflects and structured reflection remain among the best and easiest ways to use Gibbs reflective cycle. Also, it helps professionals and students alike translate experience into learning and learning into action. To derive the maximum benefit from Gibbs use, combine Gibbs with deeper forms of reflection, review reflection regularly, and implement the action plans established through Gibbs. This blog covers Gibbs reflective cycle reference, its pros, cons, and common mistakes. However, if you are struggling to apply Gibbs' reflective cycle in your assignments, you can seek assignment help anytime! An expert at Instant Assignment Help can guide you to structure reflections effectively and achieve top-quality submissions.
What is the Gibbs Reflective Cycle (NHS)? The framework called Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988) is a systematised, 6-stage process, used within the NHS, to permit Healthcare Workers to learn from their experiences. The framework allows Healthcare Workers to systematically process a specific event. Following this framework means processing the event through describing, evaluating, analysing, drawing conclusions, and drafting an action plan to improve future experiences.
Is Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle Good for Nursing Students? For nursing students, Gibbs' Reflective Cycle offers a very structured method of reflection on their clinical experiences and can be highly beneficial for developing an increased level of empathy, improved communication skills, a developed ability to think critically, increased resilience and improvement in self-awareness, which transforms an individual's challenging experiences into deep-learning opportunities.
What is the Difference Between Gibbs’ and Kolb’s Reflective Models? Kolb's Model is an expanded version of the experiential learning cycle (four stages) and describes how individuals learn, using the connection between their experiences, evaluation of those experiences, and applying what they learned from this evaluation into a subsequent experience of that same situation. Gibbs' Model is a thicker, more structured model (six stages) based on Kolb's Model.
Can Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle be Used in Assignments? Yes, Gibbs (1988) created a popular and effective academic assignment reflection cycle that breaks down a person's experiences through specific stages. This method is commonly used by academics in the fields of nursing, education and leadership to guide systematic learning from events and is broken into six stages: Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion and Action Plan.
Latest Blog
By High Quality Assignment experts on university, academics, admission, assignment, writing skills & tips, and many more
We don't support landscape mode yet. Please go back to portrait mode for the best experience
This Website Uses Cookies
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. We have updated our privacy policy in compliance with GDPR. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are
happy with it
