Personal Strengths: Tolerance for Ambiguity and Reflective Practice

The personal strengths of tolerance for ambiguity and reflective practice need to be developed because decisions are so complex in nursing and the use of clinical judgment needs to be an ongoing learning process. Each decision that a nurse makes is relatives to the context of the situation and to the specific nature of the individual, family or community with whom they are working. With experience, nurses become familiar with many types of contextual situations that can positively influence diagnostic abilities. Tolerance for ambiguity and reflective practice enable nurses to incorporate these contextual experiences to advance their professional development from novice to expert (Benner 1984; Benner et al., 1996).

Tolerance for Ambiguity

Tolerance for ambiguity is needed because there are numerous factors that influence clinical situations such as agency policies, the nurse’s job description, and the availability of resources. Tolerance for ambiguity enables nurses to consider the broad range of influencing factors within the diagnostic process and be able to focus on the most accurate diagnoses for quality-based services to individuals, families and communities.

In addition, the human beings for whom nurses provide care are extremely complex and diverse, especially when the focus is the person’s response or experience and not the illness itself. Thus, ambiguity is expected, so nurses need to adjust to the ambiguity. Nurse leaders and teachers can help by pointing out the ambiguity, treating it as a fact of life as a nurse, and being role models for tolerance for ambiguity.

Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is the ability to introspectively examine our own behaviors in relation to thinking, interpersonal events, and technical skills. This is a prerequisite to self-evaluation and, to accomplish it, to some extent we must expose ourselves, our frailties and our mistakes. There are good book and articles available that address the concept of reflection, (Jhons, 2007). Reflective practice supports continuous development or growth with the assumption that we benefit by thinking about our own behaviors and our own thinking.