Читать книгу Becoming a Reflective Practitioner - Группа авторов - Страница 92

It choosing to respond differently may well disturb normal practice with consequences for working with others. Reflection is always an analysis of the way power works within practice notably the way it constitutes relationships. To respond differently may demand an assertive voice, whereby developing an assertive voice becomes a focus of reflection. Reflective tools such as ‘the assertive action ladder’ offer a step by step developmental approach (Table 4.3). The effective practitioner is an assertive practitioner and yet, in a culture where healthcare practitioners such as nurses are not expected to be assertive, asserting self may cause conflict. Yielding (step 10) is a strength, not a weakness. It is an awareness that pushing an issue may have negative consequences. Better to live and fight another day. Retreat with dignity with one’s integrity intact. Blackwolf and Jones (1996, p. 281) note:

Yielding is not passive. It is being sensitive to energy flows and extending wisdom. Allow the winds of change to flow through you rather than against you. Be flexible with what is happening today. Yield to the circumstance, yet rooted with who you are.

Reflection is always concerned with expanding one’s autonomy in order to respond differently. The practitioner weighs up the consequences and plans to succeed. Yet a warning – claiming autonomy to respond differently may challenge normal power relationships with other colleagues, especially those perceived to hold power over you with threats of sanction if you step out of line and forget your place within the system. Autonomy is a contested space that others will also claim the power to act especially where issues of authority are blurred. Reflection helps the practitioner come to appreciate the nature and scope of their power. Nothing gets changed if we afraid to act. In contemplating taking action to bring about organisational change, the practitioner must envisage her or himself as a change agent and become adept at change strategies.⁹

TABLE 4.3 The Becoming Assertive Action Ladder 8

10	Treading the fine line between pushing and yielding
9	Playing the power game
8	Staying in adult mode
7	Being communicatively skilful
6	‘Just do it!’ (JDI)
5	Creating the optimum conditions to assert self
4	Making a good argument
3	Authority to assert self
2	Ethically right to assert self
1	Feeing the need to assert self