Reflection-on-action occurs when?

• A. During care
• B. After care
• C. Before care
• D. During discharge planning

Answer: (B)

Reflection-on-action happens after you’ve completed the patient care. It’s when you look back on what occurred, consider what went well or didn’t, and think about how you could handle things differently next time. This kind of retrospective thinking helps you learn from the experience and improve future practice. For example, after giving care and seeing a safety issue or a near-miss, you analyze why it happened, what contributed, and what changes you can make—like adjusting workflows, communication, or safety checks—to prevent recurrence.

In contrast, reflection-in-action is thinking and adjusting while you’re still in the middle of care, and reflection-for-action is planning or anticipating what you’ll do next before the next encounter. Discharge planning is a specific task within care, not the act of reflecting on what happened afterward.