Nurse Reflection Experience Reflection Using John\'s Model

Nurse Reflection

Experience Reflection Using John's Model of Reflection

Description

The event was relatively straightforward, though ultimately still profound, with a standard healthcare office (a nurse's office, specifically) providing the setting for the interview. Girls aged about thirteen years old were the subjects of the interviews in this study; they arrived with a parent (almost exclusively the mother), and were interviewed privately so as to obtain greater levels of honesty in the responses. As the girls were being questioned regarding their eating habits at home, and thus specifically the food that they were given by their parents (again almost exclusively their mothers, as learned during the interviews), it was thought that interviews taking place n front of the mothers would yield less accurate and truthful results, and thus lead to a mis-identification of real concerns. Most of the respondents seemed slightly shy but very willing to answer the questions, and all clearly understood the terms of the study and its confidentiality and readily agreed to answer the questions given. Many seemed slightly embarrassed when they acknowledged leading what they vaguely knew to be an unhealthy lifestyle in terms of eating and exercising, but none seemed truly concerned about the long-term implications of these lifestyles and it also seemed clear that while they know their diets were "bad" they didn't know the specific negative outcomes that obesity is associated with.

Reflections

The obesity problem facing much of the world's population, including many of the world's children, is often associated with a rise in the availability of processed foods. It was very interesting in my experience to see how the parents and children of Malta used traditional foods in a way that still led to increases in obesity rates and levels among the children of the country. It was very enlightening, though not in an entirely positive way, to experience first-hand the manner in which traditional foods could be so lacking in nutrition, and how when mixed with sedentary lifestyles they lead to the same obesity problems seen in other countries where packaged foods are now the norm. It was also very interesting to discuss these issues directly with the girls whose health and nutrition were at stake, to develop an unmediated understanding of how they viewed food and activity and its impact on their lives and health, and the attitudes that they were picking up from their parents. Understanding how eating habits were formed and developed, not simply in the external sense of familial eating habits but in terms of the unseen lessons about food that these girls were picking up from the food they were given at home, was a very important part of this experience that led to a larger epiphany of understanding health issues and their relation to familial/cultural issues.

Influencing Factors

A number of factors were in my perception and handling of this experience, including my own familial experience when it comes to food and nutrition and my cultural understanding of food, lifestyle habits, and more. My initial thinking and preconceived notions regarding what leads to obesity, the attitudes that I expect to be associated with obesity, and basic understandings of health and its complete dependence on nutrition and lifestyle habits all contributed to the manner in which I perceived this experience, and all of these areas are shaped to a large degree by my own personal developmental experiences. In the last area, my education and training to this point have also been influential factors, though I think I relied more on my factual knowledge and concrete data that I have learned rather than on some of the more abstract concepts of personal development and familial health trajectories and patterns that I have been exposed to in my study. In this regard, the dominance of fact-based knowledge and of clear "right" and "wrong" behaviors and facts when it comes to understanding and promoting health -- a dominance that is typical of Western cultures in many areas, including the area of health and medicine -- appears to have taken a position of significant influence, perhaps more so than would be truly desirable.

Room for Improvement

Though the interviews were successful and I generally feel pretty good about the experience, there are definitely things I could have done to improve the overall experience and the quality of the information gathered/conclusions reached as a part of this research study. A better initial awareness of my own subjectivities and preconceived notions would have allowed me to create a more comfortable setting during the asking of questions; though I of course did not consciously do or say anything that would be considered judgmental that would have guided, prompted, or otherwise tainted the responses from the interviewees, it is possible that I gave subconscious cues regarding certain trends, behavioral patterns, etc., that could have made the research less accurate. Analysis is also made more difficult by these personal and cultural subjectivities, and though I believe this was appropriately controlled for in the methodology utilized it still could have been improved upon by my taking greater care when it came to understanding and even simply acknowledging the subjective position from which I approached the experience. I also could have shown greater understanding towards the parents (mothers) of the research respondents, creating a greater sense of comfort and emphasizing the non-judgmental nature of the research so as to create a better environment for the free and honest exchange of information.