Using reflective practice processes to identify practice change issues in an aged care service

This paper reports on a reflective process used to identify areas for practice change as one element of a large practice development project that is currently being implemented in a large metropolitan psychiatric hospital. The paper describes a stepwise process of group and individual reflection on practice which was successful in helping clinicians identify areas for practice change and motivate them to plan and implement client centred change. The process described here also shows that reflection itself is insufficient to bring about change and that structures must be developed to act as the scaffolding to support the changes identified by the reflection on practice. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.