Making Courageous Conversation in Healthcare (Part I)

Abstract

Values Based Reflective Practice (VBRP®) was first developed by National Health Service (NHS) Education for Scotland in 2011 to help health and social care staff have courageous conversations about the relationship between who they are and what they do at work. The stated hope of VBRP® is to help staff reclaim a sense of meaning and purpose in their professional lives, and reawaken the memory of why they chose to work in a caring vocation. This article describes the history and development of VBRP®, the elements of this reflective practice model, and presents the first quantitative evaluation of VBRP® training with evidence gathered from 138 healthcare, social care, and third sector workers. This study is the first of a two-part series; the second article (Part II) locates VBRP® within healthcare literature concerned with “soul and role,” and it presents further qualitative evidence for and wider discussion of the model.