Читать книгу Becoming a Reflective Practitioner - Группа авторов - Страница 31

To hold creative tension, it is necessary for the practitioner to have a vision of practice, however, tentative that might be. It follows that reflection is also a reflexive inquiry into vision that becomes a moveable feast like shifting goalposts. A vision gives direction and purpose to practice. It shapes one’s attitude. It is constructed from a set of values that are ideally developed with colleagues so that everybody pulls in the same direction. Holding a personal vision is essential to contributing to a shared vision. As Senge writes (1990, p. 231), ‘If people don’t have their own vision all they can do is “sign up” for someone else’s. The result is compliance, never commitment’. Holding a vision fosters commitment and motivation simply because practice has more meaning. Whilst this may seem straightforward, it may not be easy. In reality, practitioners are often at a loss to say what their vision is as if practice is concerned with ‘what I do’ rather than ‘what I value’. Practitioners may feel that holding a vision is unnecessary because it has no function. Practitioners may scoff at the need to have a vision or take offence that someone might suggest what their vision should state or that somehow they are deficient or incompetent in some way. Egos are quickly insulted. As Henry Miller writes (1964, p. 33):

We have first to acquire a vision, then discipline and forbearance. Until we have the humility to acknowledge the existence of a vision beyond our own, until we have faith and trust in superior powers, the blind must lead the blind.

Miller suggests that a vision needs to be salient, not just say anything. Practitioners must accept that they may not know best and have the humility to be guided. Contemporary healthcare is grounded in the ideology of person‐centred practice. Clearly, anybody contemplating a vision must be strongly influenced by this idea.

The idea of person‐centred practice is loaded with cultural significance for both the person and the healthcare practitioner. It demands a working with approach that is culturally aware, sensitive, and safe. It is not so much a question of understanding the person’s culture were different from the practitioner’s own but examining the practitioner’s own attitude and response to ensure cultural safety.

Hence any practitioner’s reflective quest is to find meaning in their vision and work towards realising it as a lived reality rather than just rhetoric. It is easy for any practitioner to believe they are person‐centred. Indeed, it would be difficult to admit that they were not. Yet if practitioners were to be observed, the contradictions would be stark simply because organisations are not person‐centred. They are deeply impersonal.

Visions are a moveable feast as practitioners begin to appreciate and live the vision’s words through reflection. They are always something aimed for,¹ raising such questions as – What does person‐centred practice mean as something lived? How do my attitudes need to shift to practice it? How might the organisation of healthcare need to shift to accommodate it? In other words, holding a vision is one thing. Realising it is quite another considering the prevailing social norms that mitigate against realising it.