The value of reflective journaling in undergraduate nursing education: A literature review

doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2008.01.006

International Journal of Nursing Studies

Volume 45, Issue 9, September 2008, Pages 1379-1388

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2008.01.006 Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this literature review was to ascertain the evidence for the use of reflective journaling as a tool to promote the pedagogical strategy of reflection for the purpose of learning from practice for practice in undergraduate nursing education.

Design

Concept-centric.

Data sources

The literature review involved structured searches of all OVID gateway databases, EBSCO host databases, and Blackwell Synergy. Qualitative and Quantitative Studies from 1992 to 2006 were included if they focused on reflective journaling in undergraduate clinical education.

Review methods

Due to the vast plethora of literature on reflection, keywords were utilized to focus the search. Approximately 150 abstracts were reviewed for primary sources of research. A total of nine studies met the inclusion criteria. The review subsequently divided the literature into four content themes allowing for appraisal and analysis of the findings, followed by summary and key recommendations for nursing education and research.

Results

There was evidence that educators struggle to incorporate reflective processes into education; however, the research provided rationale and support for engaging undergraduate students in the reflective process. Researchers found reasonable levels of reflection in undergraduate students’ journaling and educators reported students’ learning as a result of reflective journaling. Further to this, there was evidence that writing reflectively improved over time; a learned skill also dependent on a good facilitator and trust. Unfortunately, there was a paucity of research that explored the undergraduate nurses’ experiences with the process of having to create written communication, with a critical reflective focus on practice.

Conclusion

Nursing educators are correct in pursuing the teaching and learning of the reflective process in undergraduate nursing education. Nurse educators need to utilize various tools and strategies for facilitating the growth of undergraduate students into reflective practitioners. Indeed there was only limited evidence to support reflective journaling as an appropriate tool to promote reflection for the purpose of learning from practice for practice in undergraduate nursing education. Research that provides insight into the undergraduate student experience and perceptions of reflective journaling is needed to facilitate the structuring and use of reflective journaling as a tool in undergraduate nursing education.

Section snippets

What is already known about the topic?

•
Nursing licensing boards include reflective practice as a compulsory competency of practicing nurses.
•
Nursing education has enthusiastically adopted the notion of reflection as an essential part of learning.
•
Nurses in practice utilize the process of reflection.
•
Reflective writing is part of both theory and practice courses.
•
Reflective journaling, as part of practice courses, is being used for both self-appraisal and reflection-on-action within education.
•
No literature review in the area of utilizing

What this paper adds

•
Limited research reported nurse educator's as supportive of the use of reflective journals as a tool for engaging undergraduate students in the reflective process.
•
Research showed that undergraduate students tended to mainly journal at lower levels of reflection but were not inept of reflecting at higher levels.
•
Reflective journal writing is a skill that is learned over time and flourishes in a environment of trust
•
No study identified the extent to which reflective journaling has been utilized in

Methods

A literature review can serve to advance knowledge by identifying what is known and what is not known about a particular phenomenon (Griffin-Sobel, 2003). Large unmanageable amounts of data are published each year; a review reduces the data into focused usable pieces (Mulrow, 1994). Approximately 150 abstracts were reviewed for primary sources of research. A summary table was created to assist in organizing and evaluating the research articles (Polit et al., 2004). The inclusion strategies were

Findings

Findings, from the nine studies included in the review, are grouped under the following four themes: educators’ utilization of reflective journaling, perceptions of utilizing or participating in reflective journaling, teaching innovation with reflective journaling, and levels of reflection achieved. Particulars of key studies are included in each section.

Discussion

The aforementioned research has clearly confirmed that nurse educators report value in the process of reflection. Three older studies (Landeen et al., 1992, Landeen et al., 1994; Smith, 1998) explored undergraduate students reflecting on practice via journal writing and all three studies provided evidence that there was value in having undergraduate students engage in reflective journaling.

Interestingly, there was a void in the literature in terms of undergraduate experiences and challenges

Conclusion

Indeed there was only limited evidence to support reflective journaling as an appropriate tool to promote reflection for the purpose of learning from practice for practice in undergraduate nursing education. Researchers found reasonable levels of reflection in undergraduate students’ journaling and educators reported learning as a result of reflective journaling. Further to this, there was evidence that writing reflectively improved over time; a learned skill also dependent on a good

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View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

The value of reflective journaling in undergraduate nursing education: A literature review

Abstract

Objectives

Design

Data sources

Review methods

Results

Conclusion

Section snippets

What is already known about the topic?

What this paper adds

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion

Nurse Education in Practice

Nurse Education Today

Nurse Education Today

From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice

Instructional design and assessment—“Blogging” about course concepts: using technology for reflective journaling in a communications class

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

Nurse educator's perception of reflection and reflective practice: a report of a descriptive study

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Reflection: nursing's practice and education panacea

Journal of Advanced Nursing

The use of student journals in nursing education: making meaning out of clinical experience

Journal of Nursing Education

Reflective peer journals: developing authentic nurses

Journal of Advanced Nursing

How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process

The use of reflection in a palliative care program: a quantitative study of reflective skills over an academic year

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Reflection as a transforming process: student advance practitioners’ experience of developing reflective skills as part of a MSC program

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Learning to make sense: the use of critical incident analysis in facilitate reflective groups of mental health students

Learning in Health and Social Care

Research in practice; the literature review

Gastroenterology Nursing

Reflection, the way to professional development

Journal of Clinical Nursing

The value of reflective practice for nursing

Journal of Clinical Nursing

Determining the level of reflective thinking from students’ written journals using coding schemes based on the work of Mezirow

International Journal of Lifelong Education

Journal keeping as an educational strategy in teaching psychiatric nursing

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Exploring the lived experience of psychiatric nursing students through self-reflective journals

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Reflective practice in clinical teaching

Nursing and Health Sciences

Reflective practice and daily ward reality: a covert power game

Journal of Clinical Nursing