212 Vol 2 No 5 • Journal of Paramedic Practice Professional Development Becoming a reflective practitioner: frameworks for the prehospital professional A mbulance clinicians function within a dynamic and ever changing environment. During their working lives, they attend an array of emergency, urgent and non-urgent calls which may be complex and challenging in nature. Schön identifies that: ‘…problems of real world practice do not present themselves to practitioners as well- formed structures. Indeed, they tend to not present themselves as problems at all but as messy, indeterminate situations’ (1987: 4) When a practitioner decides to reflect upon a situation, they have made an active decision to question their actions, the actions of others and to ponder any changes that may need to occur. Yet, it is the process that they use which will decipher if the reflection is to be beneficial or not. So, what may attract the prehospital professional to reflection and where has the paradigm arisen from? Although the concept of reflective practice is relatively new to the prehospital profession, reflection has been recorded as early as those days of Socrates, affording the realization that reflective practice is not the modern phenomena seen in today’s literature. Reflection past and present Socrates, the Greek philosopher (469 BC–399 BC), strongly believed that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. The only things that were important to Socrates were the critical evaluation of those things around him and the engagement in discussions of how to create a better world. Socrates passed on this form of questioning by encouraging his own students to question and challenge the beliefs and norms of the time, and to think for themselves. In doing so, he found himself being put on trial for heresy (Palachuk, 2008). Moving towards a more contemporary discussion of reflection, in 1681, John Locke, English philosopher, physician and widely known as the father of liberalism, believed that there were only two methods of learning. These were from the physical stimulation of the special senses and through reflection. Locke states that: ‘The understanding, like the eye, whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself; and it requires and art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own object’ (1681:15) This statement clearly identifies that it is not good enough to merely accept the external world being Sam Willis is Lecturer/Practitioner in Paramedic Science at the University of Greenwich and Training Officer with the London Ambulance Service. Email for correspondance: s.willis@gre.ac.uk Abstract The concept of reflective practice within healthcare is not new. Reflection is a process which enhances learning and knowledge acquisition and is popular among health professionals. It appears that paramedics, emergency clinicians and student paramedics are using reflective practice as the learning tool of choice. Reflective practice is undertaken for a variety of reasons including self- development, and as a means of demonstrating accountability to the Health Professions Council (HPC). The HPC recognize reflective practice as one option that will contribute towards satisfying continuous professional development requirements for the paramedic. This article discusses origins of reflection and critical inquiry, drawing upon the work of influential characters who have allowed the reflective paradigm to become what it is today. It further discusses reflective practice, critiquing three popular models and in addition, identifies alternative models of reflection specifically designed to be used by those who work within the prehospital care setting. Key words l Knowledge l Paradigm l Reflection l Specialism Accepted for publication 5 May 2010