GIBBS MODEL OF REFLECTION

Gibbs Model of Reflection

Gibbs Model of Reflection

Introduction

This is a reflective essay based on my attendance at a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting whilst on my two-week placement at a local mental health day hospital. The aim of this essay is to discuss the importance of the multidisciplinary team within the mental health environment and discuss factors that can influence the success or failure of multidisciplinary teams.

When writing your portfolio of practice you will be expected to include a piece of reflection after each placement. This reflection must relate to situations in your clinical work where you feel you have learnt something that is of value to your practice and future career. It maybe a positive experience where something went well or a negative one where you need to think about what has happened. From each piece of reflection you must identify what you have learned from the experience and how this relates to the theory that you have been taught or researched. To help you with this reflection there are several models that might be useful to help guide your reflection. You can choose any that you feel will help you. You only need to use one model. The ones that we recommend are the following; however there are many more in the literature that you might want to use and references are included for some of these.

Gibbs Model of Reflection

Mental health teams generally comprise of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, nurses, occupational therapists and social workers, but other therapists such as family therapists, psychotherapists and counsellors might also become involved in the care of the patient (Perkins & Repper 1998). Multidiscipline involvement is important within mental health nursing as people with mental health problems have multiple needs, so a variety of expertise is required to meet the needs of these people (Darby et al 1999). Multidisciplinary mental health teams can been defined as:

"A group of practitioners with different professional training, employed by more than one agency, who meet regularly to coordinate their work providing services to one or more clients in a defined area" (Ovretveit,1993: 9 cited in Onyett 2003)

The advantage of a multidisciplinary team approach is that all professionals work together by collecting the facts and by bringing information together, to obtain as complete a view as possible of the problems of each individual patient. In doing this they are able to make sure that the proper range of treatments is used in a properly planned way (Onyett 2003).

One of the disadvantages of a multidisciplinary team is that problems can be encountered when different professionals work together, there can be unclear goals, lack of direction and poor leadership (Darby et al 1999).

In order to structure this reflection I have chosen Gibbs (1988) as the model to help with my reflective process. This model comprises of a process that helps the individual look at a situation and think about their thoughts and feelings at the time of the incident. Reflective skills help us to think about what could have ...