CMC Self-Reflection Tool 

  • Self-Reflection Interactive Tool

    Part of the Council of Medical Colleges Cultural Safety Toolkit

  • Introduction
    Critical consciousness development is a life-long journey of continuous reflection and embedding transformative change practices that best serve the needs of patients, whānau and communities, and contribute to equity and optimal health for all. Critical consciousness focuses on achieving an in-depth understanding of the world, revealing injustices and promoting action.

    This Self-Reflection Tool is intended to be used by individual practitioners to stimulate critical consciousness development and encourage self-awareness, reflexivity, and tranformative actions. If undertaken at regular intervals, this tool can be used to monitor one’s own progress over time. To get the best out of the tool, honest and open self-reflection is required which can be confronting, but also rewarding.

    Critical consciousness development is a key part of cultural safety.  Cultural safety has several dimensions; internal (focusing on self), horizontal or interpersonal (examining relationships with others in your professional teams and workplaces), and vertical or systemic (taking a systems approach).

    This tool has been designed to support the Council of Medical College’s implementation of the Cultural Safety Training Plan for Vocational Medicine in Aotearoa 2023[1]. It forms part of a suite of resources in the CMC Cultural Safety Toolkit, and is best used as a starting point for self-reflection and critical consciousness development. 

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  • Critical consciousness development
    The diagram below demonstrates the ongoing process of critical consciousness development.  This Self-Reflection Tool is particularly useful for “raising awareness and identifying the need for change”.

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  • [1] Simmonds S et al (2023) A Cultural Safety Training Plan for Vocational Medicine in Aotearoa. Te ORA and the Council of Medical Colleges, Wellington, New Zealand. January 2023 www.cmc.org.nz/media/4xmpx1dz/cultural-safety-training-plan-for-vocational-medicine-in-aotearoa.pdf

    Author: Shirley Simmonds, peer review: Mataroria Lyndon
    Graphic design credit: Krishni Manek – Neo Design, thisisneo.co.nz

     

    • Useful Definitions 

    • The following are some definitions that might be helpful:

      Critical consciousness: An in-depth understanding of social and political contradictions, combined with taking action against oppressive elements in ourselves, communities, and society. It's an ongoing journey of developing awareness of oppression.

      Self-reflection: A process of self-examination to understand our character, behaviors, and the reasons behind them. It aims to gain insight, challenge embedded norms, and can apply to individuals, groups, or organizations.

      Reflexivity: Examining how our own feelings, reactions, and motives influence our thoughts and actions. It helps counter biases and allows us to shape our practices based on equity and social justice.

      Transformative change: A process to create revolutionary change within society through systems-level interventions that embed and habitualise anti-oppressive practices, contributing to social justice.

      Equity: Fairness and justice that recognizes different individuals and groups have different needs requiring different approaches. It pursues the absence of unfair, avoidable differences between groups, with a social justice foundation.

      Healthcare Ecosystem: All services, organizations, and entities that contribute to healthcare, including those outside the health system itself, varying by health scenario.

  • How to Use the Tool

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    There are 20 questions, take time to consider each question.

    You may want to make notes to record your results in order to reassess at regular intervals and track your progress as part of a continuing professional development plan. 

    It is estimated to take between 15-20 minutes to complete but will be longer if considerable notes are made.

    The tool is primarily designed for interactions between healthcare professionals and patients, whānau and communities, but can also be used to reflect on interactions amongst colleagues, and also to reflect on the organisation you work within, or other organisations in the wider healthcare ecosystem.

  • Contact data is collected to allow a summary of your responses to be emailed to you for your records. All responses are deleted from our system after 30 days.

  • 1. Critical Consciousness Development 

  • 1.1 How much do I know about my own cultural heritage, values and history? How do these influence my practice and my interactions with others?*
  • 1.2 How much awareness do I have of my own biases, assumptions, and privileges? How do these impact my professional interactions?*
  • 1.3 How often do I reflect on my interactions with patients, whãnau, and communities?*
  • 1.4 How much do I involve patients, whãnau, and communities in decision-making?*
  • 1.5 How often do I identify and implement practices that contribute to equity? And practices that contribute to optimal health for patients, whānau and communities?*

  • 2. Redressing power relationships

  • 2.1 How much do I identify, and advocate for, the rights of patients, whānau, and communities?*
  • 2.2 How often do I identify power imbalances between myself and patients, whānau, and communities? Do I redress these power imbalances?*
  • 2.3 Do I intentionally encourage shared decision-making and informed consent in my interactions with patients, whānau and communities?*
  • 2.4 How often do I identify and redress power imbalances in my team or in the workplace? Do I actively promote collaboration amongst my colleagues?*
  • 2.5 Do I seek to challenge and influence power differentials in my organisation? Do I ensure this doesn’t compromise my own wellbeing?*

  • 3. Commitment to transformative action

  • 3.1 How often do I critique organisations and entities in the healthcare ecosystem and the ways they reinforce health advantage and disadvantage?*
  • 3.2 Do I regularly identify and influence structural barriers to equitable, culturally safe care within my workplace?*
  • 3.3 How often do I analyse the culture amongst colleagues to identify and address oppressive practices?*
  • 3.4 Do I regularly examine health outcomes by ethnicity to identify areas of need?*
  • 3.5 How often do I identify solutions to structural and institutional barriers, and embed these transformational changes?*

  • 4. Ensure safety is determined by patients, whānau and communities

  • 4.1 How often do I gather feedback from patients, whānau and communities on my own practice?*
  • 4.2 Do I advocate for my workplace to gather regular feedback from patients, whānau and communities?*
  • 4.3 When I receive suggestions from patients, whānau and communities, do I implement these changes in my personal practice? Do I make these changes standard practice?*
  • 4.4 When designing or planning policies, programmes, interventions and healthcare models, do I draw on research and information from diverse patient perspectives and experiences?*
  • 4.5 When designing or planning policies, programmes, interventions and healthcare models, do I draw on Kaupapa Māori research that represents tangata whenua perspectives and experiences?*

  • Ka pai - your results will be displayed on the next page.

    We will also send you this result and a copy of your responses for your records via email
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