Reflecting on Depression: A Personal Learning Journey Assignment Sample

Introduction - Improving Knowledge & Skills: Depression Viva Reflection

The approach that is based on the evidence is a process to make decisions with the help of both critical thinking and the evidence that is available to support the decision-making process. If the decision is made evidence-based, it becomes less conditioned on the story and gains personal experience. The decision-making process becomes easier by gathering information that is relevant to the topic. The aim of this essay is to a discussion about the chosen topic. The chosen topic is focusing on depression. The essay will be about my reflection of mine using my decision-making process on depression. To elaborate on my experience the Gibbs model will be used. Gibbs's model has been chosen because this model has six stages that can help in the exploration of the experience. It will act as a framework for examining the experiences to learn. The essay is divided into three segments. First, there will be a discussion about the focus topic. Then there will be an analysis of the performance of chosen topic. Lastly, the action plan will be made based on the discussion. The structure of the work will be based on Gibbs's model of reflection.

Main Body

• What: The topic of this essay is on focus depression. Depression among young adults is a common thing nowadays. The scenario is centred on a 20-year-old boy who is suffering from depression. The boy is a student at a university that has been admitted to the patient unit to serve as a voluntary patient. The boy has been inattentive in class and has been missing college due to depression. This has led to the degradation of his academic performance (Mckenna, 2019). He has been reattached by his friends. He has been suffering from post-breakup which made him isolated from society. For this recurring depression, he is having irregular sleep termed as insomnia, and reduction of appetite resulting in severe weight loss in a short period (Tawanwongsri and Phenwan, 2019). The issue of this topic is how this depression has affected me and my performance in the viva examination. The performance of mine was mediocre in this scenario. I was aware of the topic of depression so there were no unknown resources about the topic. But the skill of mine could have been better. I did not have a depth understanding of depression and its severe effects of it. The thing I want to improve is the lack of prior knowledge about depression. The topic is needed to be learned thoroughly to understand the outcome of depression (Sweet, et al. 2019). Personal experience of people who have suffered from or have been suffering from depression would benefit me to understand the scenario better. Prior experiences could help me perform better. Also, the communication skill of mine could have been improved. The part that did go well is that I was not silent during the viva exam which can be a sign of poor performance. I carried a positive attitude which gave me the strength to attend the viva with a positive mind (Yaacob et al. 2021). The experience has some positive and negative factors. Both factors are equally important for me to grow and improve my skills which I need to work on. This experience has helped me recognize my skill and bring my focus to the skills that I need to pay attention to (Miller, 2020).
• So, what: The section will be focused on my performance. The analysis will be discussed based on the Gibbs model of reflection. The Gibbs model comprises six stages which are Descriptive about the experience, Feelings regarding the experience and its thoughts, Evaluation of the experience, analysis of the situation, Conclusion regarding the experience and lastly the Action plan on how to deal with that situation (Adani, et al. 2020). There was an assessment that is based on the topic of depression.
  The viva examination was held with one-by-one approach. There were only two people present me and the examiner. The examiner made the environment calm for me to be comfortable. After that, he asked me questions related to the topic. The topic was not unknown to me. I had prior knowledge about the topic but my knowledge of it was on borderline. So, I was able to answer a few questions about depression. The feeling that I had during the viva examination is calming (Sekarwinahyu et al. 2019). I was not afraid or nervous that much. The examiner has a friendly approach that helped me answer the questions. My performance on the viva examination went well but that could have been better. I think I would have performed well if my knowledge was clear about depression. The communication skill of mine needs to be improved. I could have been more approachable in asking queries in case of any confusion regarding questions. The listening skills of mine could have been improved. The evaluation of the experience has been around the positive factors as well as the negative factors. The positive factor was that the viva examination gave me the experience to witness the situation. The nature of the examiner was on a positive note. The negative factor was my lack of knowledge of mine to answer the critical questions. I self-evaluate that I need proper knowledge of the topic to examine with a success rate. I think that the examination went somewhat well because the examiner had a positive approach and was not critically biased at all. I have discovered that my experience could have been traumatic in case of a negative approach from the other side (Gibbs et al. 2020). The Gibbs model of reflection has helped me clearly describe my thoughts and experiences. By using this model, I can understand the importance of this experience and how I can improve myself and my skills for the future.
• Now what: The section is focusing on the action plan that can be conducted based on the reflection of mine in the area of improvement. The action plan is conducted by a smart art plan which mentions the possible measures that can be taken for a successful outcome (Choi et al. 2019). The action plans are important because the framework can outline the thinking process and make future work easy. It increases the efficiency of the project so that the outcomes become successful. The activity of work can be done in a systematic way to not miss or neglect any key step or important information. Here the action plan is based on the topic of depression. Through my experiences and reflection, there is needed an action plan that can help me in improving the skills that I lack during my viva examination (Schedlitzki, 2019). Through this action plan, I can research elaborately on the topic which will help me know and understand the topic more deeply and can improve my experience of the viva examination in the future. The action plan is done with SMART which is divided into 5 steps. The first step is specificity about the goal that is wished to achieve. Then measurable action is based on keeping track of the goal. Then actionable steps to take proper action in achieving the goal. Relevant is for setting the goal into a reality that can be achieved. Lastly, the bounding time is needed for the research to be completed successfully.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the topic of this research is based on the reflection on decision-making. The decision-making process is reflected by the viva experience on the chosen topic which is focusing on depression. The occurrence of depression among teenagers and young adults is a common thing nowadays. People can be seriously affected by this and this can hamper their lives. Depression creates a barrier in the academic field as well as in my personal life. The chosen topic has been discussed elaborately. The self-reflection has been done using the Gibbs model for evaluating my experience and my thought of mine. Based on the reflection the action plan is created based on SMART. The smart action plan can increase the mode of the research. With a properly outlined structure, the action plan can be easily conducted.

Reference

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Choi, Y., Choi, S.H., Yun, J.Y., Lim, J.A., Kwon, Y., Lee, H.Y. and Jang, J.H., 2019. The relationship between levels of self-esteem and the development of depression in young adults with mild depressive symptoms. Medicine, 98(42).

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