Gibbs Reflective Cycle for Interview with Service User
Seaneen Barr – 2nd Year Social Work
This essay will look at Gibbs 1998 model of reflection to evaluate my role play in which Robin will be playing the part of the service user, and the aim is to provide a description, feelings, evaluation, analysis and conclusion and an action plan with the purpose of reflection and improvement in social work practice. The role-play is part of the university module with the focus to reflect on learning and to further develop in certain areas with the aim to ‘promoting and facilitating personal growth’ (Thompson, 2015, p.15) with self-actualisation for social work practice and for the practice learning opportunity. It will concentrate on three key areas of development from the tutor, such as the need to slow down at the beginning of the role play, setting an agenda, making sure I talk it through with the service user, and my interpersonal skills come out more. It is acknowledged the need and ability to engage professionally with service users, and the importance of ‘structure and interaction are required for every interview’ (NICE, 2015, p.91) with an overall reference to the importance of reflective learning for professional development in social work practice and better outcomes working with service users.
The role-play with Robin started with introducing who I was, where I worked and discussed the confidentiality policy. I advised them of why I was there and going to work through an agenda with her. At this point, I did not ask Robin ‘was there anything she wanted to add’ to the agenda, which I should have done to provide her with the opportunity to open up more on the issues she was having. At the beginning of the interview, I was nervous for the first minute as it was an unnatural setting; I seemed to be talking fast, then I settled down as the conversation got underway. I started to think about what questions I would ask next, then the questions flowed during the interview. I asked Robin opening questions, closed questions, clarifying questions, which provided her with the opportunity to discuss her situation and how she was feeling. During the role-play, I incorporated what I have learned so far and put my knowledge into practice. However, with the ‘hard and soft features of social work’ (Ingram et al., 2014, p.75) it is looking into how this had undergone, and to review this ‘single-loop learning’ (Knott and Scragg, 2016, p.98a) process and working on areas of improvement.
The tutor describing my role play picked up on my nerves at the beginning, and that it seemed rushed. I was nervous initially as I was meeting Robin for the first time, I was aware of this, and I worked on slowing down during the first minute. As Cottrell articulated in Knott and Scragg, we can ‘learn how to manage these feelings’ (2016, p.65b), and I acknowledged that I must tune into my feelings to spontaneously capture my thoughts before I meet the service user next time. The tutor had also picked up on when I was setting the agenda; I did not ask Robin ‘is there anything else you would like to add’ (Case Scenario, 2019), therefore not setting this with her.
At this point, I was thinking about asking Robin without actually giving her that opportunity to add in what she wanted to talk about, which would have shown she is being listened to. This fits into what Newman et al. states on ‘being clear on what the benefits should be for service users’ (2005, p.118) by exploring what we will be discussing to support service user needs, which was not set in the agenda. During the interview, I had felt more confident this time than I did in week two of my Personal and Professional Development Workbook (PPDW, 2019), in which I had not mentioned an agenda and that I was nervous about asking open questions. This prompted me to ‘identify and explore aspects and issues of the situation, feelings, challenges and questions on how and why? (Rutter and Brown, 2012, p.30) I responded this way, which I worked on to connect to my mental intransigence to do better this time around.
My interpersonal skills is another key area that my tutor picked up on in which I could have shown these more. In this situation, I communicated with Robin as best as I could, considering she expressed her views in most of the interview, and I intervened when she stopped her conversation. Although, I will take these comments onboard on showing my interpersonal skills more in the next role play. Overall, during the interview process, I felt that I worked with ‘effective and ethical practice’ (Watson and West, 2006, p.163) working in a person-centred way, with self-awareness, self-structure, and providing good listening skills, showing empathy and ‘respect the rights of service users’ (BASW, 2014, p.1, NISCC, 2019, p.5, Parker, 2017, p.17a) throughout. The process of linking ‘praxis’ (Banks, 2012, p.208) social work values within the practice and self-regulating the need for continuous ‘monitoring, reviewing or evaluating progress’ (Trevithick, 2002, p.174) in this role will be an ongoing process.
Evaluating my practice found positive experiences, firstly, in offering positive responses to Robin, such as being mindful with self-knowledge and assimilating personal professionalism not to say, ‘I know how you feel’ or that ‘I understand what you are going through. Instead, I responded with ‘that must be very hard for you’, showing empathy and unconditional positive regard. Secondly, when Robin was expressing her views when prompted using open questions, I had the opportunity with ‘reflection in action (Adams et al., 1998, p.97, Coulshed and Orme, 2012, p.89, Mantel, 2013, p.9a) to listen on what was being said and ‘to keep the interview focused in useful directions’ (Cameron, 2008, p.95) by providing empathetic responses and keeping the conversation flowing. Thirdly, the only bad experience taken from the interview was that I would have liked more time for the interview process, for my interpersonal skills to come out more. It would have allowed me to develop practice wisdom, and conceptualise asking ‘how many, ‘by when’, and ‘because of what’ (Parker, 2017, p.195b) and it would have provided learning needs from this experience.
The analysis on my practice showed I would benefit from controlled emotions before the interview and a psychodynamic approach to ‘emotional intelligence’ (Howe, 2014, p.83/84a, Lishman, 1991, p.85, Mantel, 2013, p.17b) before working with the service user. I could have managed my nervousness and talking fast, by tuning in beforehand. As Payne 2000 articulated on the three-stage approach in Parrott 2006 that the ‘secondary level is to catch problems and try to deal with them early’ (p.42) which I did, by slowing down in the first minute when I realised I was nervous. This approach, is particularly useful when setting an agenda, realising I missed it then bringing it back into the role play at some point which I need to do next time.
I realised that in social work practice, as Cournoyer 1991 states that ‘comport with a social work purpose within the context of a phase of practice’ (Dickson and Bamford, 1995, p.88), preparation and structure is paramount, and when ‘others critique these’ (Parker, 2017, p.195c) such as the tutor, we need to analyse and question what has happened and how we fix this for future reference.
Concluding on the role-play using Gibbs 1998 reflective cycle, it focussed on three key areas with the overall aim to improve my practice. It acknowledged the need to control my nerves before the initial visit, which will help the conversation be slower and controlled. For my interpersonal skills to come through more, the need to engage professionally with the use of different questions, setting an agenda, and including Robin to discuss other issues may change the conversation’s dynamics and bring out the good communications skills that I possess within my social work practice. The feedback from the role play acknowledged the strengths of what was successful and identified areas of improvement; it is ‘increasing both Internal and Interactive Consistency’ (Hitchin, 2016, p.973, Douglas, 2008, p.383) from the feedback given and learning from this. It recognized that within social work practice, it is working with ‘stability and unpredictability’ (Koprowska, 2014, p.1, Pease and Fook, 1999, p.154) and that we must control our emotions in each situation we are working in. As Forte and Fowler articulated for preparation for practice learning, a ‘positive role model leads to a greater degree of interprofessional learning’ (2009, p.59). We must take advice on board to improve our learning for better social work outcomes. It is improving how we use this learning, put an action plan into place for how I practice next time around and what factors will support me in my learning.
Firstly, improving on the key areas set out above on tuning into my emotions, being calm before I meet the service user will improve the way I work and allow the client to open up within the conversation. As Tompkins 1962 quoted in Howe 2014 that social workers need to know how thoughts can activate feelings and that ‘reason without effect would be impotent, affect without reason would be blind’ (p.84b) therefore, being self-aware and controlling how we feel will provide better social work practice. Secondly, improving my practice by putting an action plan into place in structuring for the interview next time, setting an agenda and asking the client ‘what they want to add’. This will improve practice for the social worker and the client to discuss their issues, rather than what the social worker has only set out. Lastly, the factors that will support my learning is a commitment to my role, using my knowledge and skills and putting these into practice. As Rogers 2010 states in Parris 2012 with ‘active experimentation’ (p.32), it is taking on board the feedback given. The key learning taken from Gibbs reflective cycle is the analysis of your own experience to improve professional social work practice areas.
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