Abstract

Background: Practice development has been evolving as a movement in nursing for decades but was first conceptualised by Garbett and McCormack (2002). At its core are the principles that embody a shared intention of developing and improving both professional practice and patient care (McCormack et al., 2013). Through effective, supportive and motivational facilitation, practice development has the capacity to transform dominant and oppressive task-oriented cultures, run by hierarchical leaderships, into cultures that empower and value the contributions of all stakeholders, allowing for transformational and emancipatory learning (McCormack et al., 2013).

Aims: Today, there are nine defining principles of practice development (McCormack et al., 2013). Based loosely on Kolb’s model of reflection (1998), this article is an in-depth critical evaluation of my own learning, which took place in the context of a practice development school for pre-registration nurses. I have chosen to focus on the practice development principle that I found to be most transformative. Principle number eight states: ‘Practice development is associated with a set of processes including skilled facilitation that can be translated into a specific skill set required as near to the interface of care as possible’.

Conclusions and implications for practice: This journey has taught me that knowledge and experience will inevitably influence facilitation (Crisp and Wilson, 2011). However, the skills and attributes embodied by an effective facilitator are multifaceted and the evolution of my own facilitation expertise will continue alongside with my journey as a practice developer. On the journey so far, I have learned to appreciate the value of authentic and meaningful engagement, how to inspire and evoke it, and to what extent it has the potential to influence effective facilitation. I have learned to use various facilitation methods to create and sustain high levels of engagement, high challenge and high support, and ultimately, I have learned how skilled facilitation has the capacity to transform meaning perspectives to the benefit of all stakeholders, and to promote person-centred practice.

This article by Chelsea Agate is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.