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The Use of Guided Reflective
Journals in Clinical Nursing Courses
Valerie Taylor-Haslip, Health Sciences
Research has shown that the regular habit of journal writing can deepen students’ thinking about their course subjects by helping them see that an academic field is an arena for wonder, inquiry, and controversy rather than simply a new body of information. John C. Bean
Introduction In nursing courses, lecture and discussion have been the primary methodologies for teaching theoretical principles, and the standard measurement tool for evaluating academic success in the classroom has been pen-and-paper testing. As a result, nursing students have tended to memorize factual material in order to pass their exams, but then found it difficult to apply their newly acquired theoretical knowledge to the clinical area. With a more complete understanding of the rela- tionship between theory and practice, nursing students could not only improve their performance in both classroom and clinical settings but also become more competent nurses upon graduating. For learners who must demonstrate the practical application of didactic knowledge, it is important that they become “aware of their attitudes toward learning” (Rosenbaum, Lobas, and Ferguson 1187). With nursing students, this task appears to be most effectively accom- plished by encouraging them to reflect on the larger context, meaning, and implications of their actions and experiences in the clinical area. Through this process, which fosters the internalization of concepts that have been encountered in the classroom, nursing students can gain better insight into the areas in which they need additional theo- retical grounding, thereby improving both their academic and clinical success. Guided reflective journals are a form of exploratory writing whose purpose is to stimulate student thinking about both theoretical and clinical concepts (Bean 102). They provide the opportunity for a student-centered written conversation between learner and instructor regarding significant experiences that have occurred in the clinical area. In the journal, students can pose questions, seek clarification of specific
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items, find meaning, and discuss matters of concern and interest with the instructor (Paterson 211). Dye states that journaling with “a structured journal format with clear instructions and ongoing feedback has been found to be most successful in maintaining student engagement” (1). Increased student engagement leads to a better understanding of course content, and this improved understanding strengthens student ability to apply theo- retical concepts to the performance-based skills required of competent practitioners. For students entering the nursing profession, the abil- ity to link theory with practice through ongoing reflection is of vital importance. As Dye points out, “An essential component of expert professional practice is the practitioner’s ability to critically reflect on his or her performance” (1). As a strategy to encourage nursing students to reflect upon their performance, guided reflective journals were introduced into the Parent-Child Nursing course (SCR270) in LaGuardia Community College’s PN-RN Advanced Pathway program. The students who enter the PN-RN Advanced Pathway are Licensed Practical Nurses already in possession of technical skills that can be applied under the proper supervision. Their goal, however, is to assume the role of a Registered Nurse, which carries with it a much greater level of responsibility and requires practitioners to think critically rather than rely on the guid- ance of others. This study explores the use of guided reflective journals in helping nursing students achieve this goal.
Sample Population The students involved in this study were Licensed Practical Nurses studying in the PN-RN Advanced Pathway program for the purpose of becoming Registered Nurses. There was a total of thirty students, twenty-eight of whom were female. Ranging in age from their mid-20s to their mid-50s, most of the students were returning to school while continuing to work full time. All of the students were enrolled in the evening section of the course, Parent-Child Nursing, which requires both classroom and clinical work. For their clinical work, the thirty students were divided into three groups of ten students each. Their maternity and pediatric clinical rotations were carried out at three locations: Bellevue Hospital Center, Jamaica Hospital Center, and Flushing Hospital Center, all in New York City.
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students do not provide reasons or justifications for their actions. Instead, their journal entries are limited to task-oriented descriptions of the duties they have carried out. Although such descriptions might be quite detailed, they do not explain why the student writers did what they did, nor indicate whether, in their estimation, the task was suc- cessfully accomplished. Descriptive reflective writing is defined by Hatton and Smith as reflection that attempts to provide reasons, often based on the students’ personal judgment or on what they have read in the literature (14). These journal entries may provide a measure of student self-assessment or clarification of intentions, but they are generally restricted to just one perspective or present only a single factor as the rationale for what occurred (24). Dialogic reflective writing is a form of conversation that writers have with themselves (14). In this type of reflection, students spend less time reporting events and more time discussing experiences. They explore possible rationales for their actions and reveal a deeper under- standing of concepts. There is evidence in this type of reflective writing that students are drawing on their powers of judgment, explaining their actions in specific situations, seeking possible alternatives, and begin- ning to hypothesize about future actions (24). Critical reflective writing, at the top of Hatton and Smith’s hierar- chy, includes clear rationales for actions and decisions, and takes into account the broader theoretical, historical, social, and political contexts of the writer’s experience. Students writing at this level of reflection go beyond a single personal perspective. They are able to demonstrate an awareness of what has influenced their actions and to discuss the effects their actions might have in multiple contexts (14, 24). Examples of student journal entries of each type, with the excep- tion of critical reflective writing, can be found in Table 1. Examples of critical reflection are not provided as none of the nursing students was able to demonstrate this level of reflection.
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Table 1: Sample Student Journal Entries Categorized According to the Hatton and Smith Criteria Student journal entry Descriptive
Descriptive reflective
Dialogic reflective
Critical reflective Student 1 Today I was assigned to 34 year old patient who had a C-Section done. She also had Sickle Cell Disease and was concerned about her newborn baby getting the disease. My goal was to teach her about the disease and also how to care for her wound to prevent infection. I was able to inform her that for her daughter to get the disease the father would have to have the disease and the newborn chances would be 25%. I also taught her about hand washing technique to pre- vent infection and also to walk as much as she can to prevent constipation.
Today I was assigned to the newborn nursery. Since I am repeating this course, I decided to explore all of the areas of newborn as- sessment so that I can get a better understanding. I was more comfortable in doing a thorough assessment along with my professor and I am sure this will help me in my exam.
Student 2 Today I was assigned to my first clinical task and duties [and] I was a little nervous when professor gave me the assignment. Although I am a nurse for 5 years I never worked on a maternity unit. I was glad to get this experi- ence so in the future I can think of working the maternity unit at times.
My patient today was a 7 year old boy diagnosed with Status Asthmaticus. I have learned that Status Asthmaticus can cause severe respiratory distress and without immediate care the child may progress to respiratory failure and die. After receiving treatment [with] solumedrol, which I administered with my professor, my patient was able to walk around without any respiratory distress. I wrote a note, gave report to the nurse and I was very happy I got the opportunity to help.
In addition to evaluating the students’ weekly entries in their guided reflective journals, the instructor also examined two other measures of student performance. One measure was the unit exams based on material covered in class and graded with a percentage score. Evaluations of the
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Although no students were able to attain the highest of Hatton and Smith’s levels, that of critical reflection, the number writing at the descriptive reflective and dialogic reflective levels held steady until the end of the semester. In Week Twelve, only three of the thirty students (10%) continued to limit themselves to simple descriptions. Fourteen students (47%) were demonstrating an ability to engage in descriptive reflection, while another thirteen students (43%) had reached the level of dialogic reflection. There was also some indication that the students’ increasing ability to use their journals for reflection might be related to improved results on both their written exams and their clinical performance. As a group, the students had their lowest average exam grade, 75%, during the first week, when their journal writing was almost entirely limited to simple description. By the fourth week, when a majority (57%) of the students had begun to write reflectively in their journals, the average exam grade had increased to 82%. In the eighth week, the average student exam grade slipped to 77%, even though 90% of the students had reached at least the descriptive reflective level of journal writing. This apparent contradiction can be explained, however, by the fact that the class had just concluded the part of the course dealing with maternity and was taking the first exam devoted to pediatrics; the change in subject matter could easily account for the lower exam scores. By the twelfth week, the average exam grade had risen to 85%, the highest average during the entire semester. At this point, not only were 90% of the students continuing to write reflectively in their journals, but nearly half of these had reached the level of dialogic reflection. In the area of clinical performance, where the effects of reflective writing might be expected to be most observable, the results were even more consistent. In the first week, the students’ clinical performance had been only at the beginning stages and was not formally assessed. In the fourth week, however, 90% of the students received an evalua- tion of “satisfactory,” while 10% got a grade of “needs improvement” or “unsatisfactory.” As the percentage of students writing reflectively in their journals increased from 57% in the fourth week to 90% in the eighth week, the percentage receiving a grade of “satisfactory” on their clinical performance also increased, from 90% to 96%. As noted, the level of reflection in the student journals remained high in the twelfth week, as did the students’ clinical performance, with 96% once again receiving a grade of “satisfactory” during that week.
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In addition to exam scores and evaluations of clinical performance, there were other indications of the positive effect of reflective writing on the students’ work and on their attitudes toward that work. In their journals, the students gradually became more focused on the results of their actions, and on the effect of those actions on their patients, as opposed to just reporting the tasks they had accomplished. They also made increasing reference to how much they were learning by keeping reflective journals and how the experience was affecting their academic and clinical success. It was also noted that students who reflected more often in their journals tended to seek more frequent clarification from the instructor in both classroom and clinical settings, and these conversations in turn helped the instructor understand what the students were experiencing. For example, Ming, with grades of B and B+ on her exams, was hav- ing difficulty applying principles learned in class to the clinical area. In one instance, under Ming’s care was a 17-month-old infant who cried vigorously whenever Ming approached with a stethoscope. Unable to soothe the child, Ming asked the instructor for help in obtaining the vital signs of the crying infant, and this task was successfully accom- plished. It was not until the instructor read Ming’s journal, however, that she discovered Ming’s awareness that the infant was in pain or associated the stethoscope with pain:
Today, I was assigned to a patient who was admitted due to a right hip dislocation. She is a 17 month old Asian. When I walked in, the mother was playing with her, and she seemed to be having fun. I introduced myself and asked the mother if I could take the baby’s vital sign. She allowed me to do so. Upon starting to take her apical pulse, the baby started crying and pushing the stethoscope I was holding away from her. I realized that she associated the stethoscope with pain or an unpleasant experience. The mother seemed to be upset about the baby’s crying. I did not know what to do, so I decided to come back later. About 15 minutes had passed, and I walked in and smiled cheerfully. At first I allowed the baby to become familiar with the stethoscope, and surprisingly she began to play with it for a while. I thought to myself, “I got you.” Nonetheless, when I tried to put it on her heart, she went ballistic again. She cried and fidgeted more than before. The mother was apologetic to me. I felt bad for her. I told her not to feel that way because
a search for answers, which in turn leads to a greater appreciation for what has been covered in class. The process of keeping a guided reflective journal moves the stu- dent through this process to higher levels of reflection. Reflection in the clinical setting forces nursing students to acknowledge their own strengths and limitations as they attempt to make decisions concerning patient care. When students receive instructor feedback in the form of increasingly demanding reflective questions, they begin to utilize more complex processes that result in higher levels of critical thinking and more effective decision-making.
Appendix: The Guided Journal Assignment
SCR 270 Parent-Child Nursing Clinical Rotation Guided Journal The clinical rotation for maternity nursing will take place the first six weeks of the course and each week you will rotate to a different area of maternity. The pediatric nursing clinical rotation will take place the last six weeks of the course. To optimize your personal clinical experiences, you will keep a journal to record your learning objectives and learning experiences throughout the semester.
Purpose: To provide you with an opportunity to focus on a personal learning objective apart from the assigned clinical learning objective.
Description: Your journal should be kept in a small notepad and carried to the clinical area each week. Write your personal objective and the date as the title of your entry. Use the informal narrative style of writing for all entries and proceed in the following manner:
- Prior to reporting to the clinical area, write down your own per- sonal learning objective for the day.
- At the end of the clinical day, record your experiences in your journal.
- Explain if you were or were not able to meet your personal learning objective.
- Describe what you would do the same or differently to ensure you met your objective during the next clinical experience.
- Write a reflection of the entire clinical rotation experience as your final entry in your journal at the end of the semester.
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Below are suggestions you may use as learning objectives; however, you are encouraged to develop your own personal goals. Week 1 Personal expectations for orientation to the maternity units Week 2 Personal organization of your clinical tasks and duties Week 3 Prioritization of your work day Week 4 Communication and interaction with a maternity client Week 5 Communication with another healthcare professional (MD, Pharmacist, etc.) regarding your client Week 6 Formal report to the nurse responsible for your client Week 7 Personal expectations for orientation to the pediatric units Week 8 Understanding the drug interactions of medications you will be administering to the pediatric clients Week 9 Patient education for the parents of an infant Week 10 Patient education for the parents of a toddler or pre-schooler Week 11 Patient education for the parents of a school-age child or adolescent Week 12 Reflections on the entire clinical experience
Works Consulted Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey, 2001. Print. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Educ. Ser. Dye, Deanna. “Enhancing Critical Reflection of Students During a Clinical Internship Using the Self-S.O.A.P. Note.” The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice 3.4 (2005): 1–6. Web. 17 Aug.
Hatton, Neville, and David Smith. Reflection in Teacher Education: Towards Definition and Implementation. Master of Teaching, Faculty of Educ. and Social Work, U of Sydney, 1994. Web. 11 Sept. 2009. http://alex.edfac.usyd.edu.au/LocalResource/originals/hattonart.rtf. Jensen, Sharon K., and Christina Joy. “Exploring a Model to Evaluate Levels of Reflection in Baccalaureate Nursing Students’ Journals.” Journal of Nursing Education 44.3 (2005): 139–42. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 18 Aug. 2009.
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