Reflective Journals

Reflective journaling is the documentation of critical thinking in which you record critical thoughts triggered by a significant or critical practice event. That is, thinking is provoked or triggered by some practice event which you consider to be important and which stimulated you to think beyond the actual event or to think about the actual event in deeper ways, not superficially.

Think of your practice experiences as the "music" that triggers a "dancing urge." Your Reflective Journal entries are the "dance." For example, a practice event may have provoked some emotion which compelled you to take action which you would discuss in your journal or provoked you to want to take action but did not for some reason which you would also discuss in your journal. You will raise questions which we will explore. You can use the journals to trace your intellectual journey through the course. This is what we have discussed as "praxis"—the marriage of discipline knowledge and values with practice and practice with discipline knowledge and values.

Reflective Journals provide you with opportunities to discuss your thoughts about complex, thorny, ambiguous, proud, sad, happy, embarrassing, hostile, wrenching, obvious, indifferent, or any number of other practice moments which nurses encounter in their professional lives as nurses and which you were a part. Journaling is best done immediately at the end of the day while you are still engaged with the emotions and thoughts. It would seem that journals are best—are authentic—if not edited.

Obviously, these reflective journals cannot and will not be graded. They will also be confidential between faculty and student unless you choose to share the moment in post conferences or Web Board discussions. Remember, this is the course to "tie it all together" and, as students, you are probably more alike than different. Other students can learn from your experiences since they may be encountering similar situations and feeling similar emotions. Your journal provides both teacher and student with learning opportunities.

In writing your reflective journal each week, use these guidelines:

1. Provide evidence rather than claims about the event and your involvement in it; that is, be descriptive
2. Engage course and practice objectives and practice experiences deeply by discussing important practice events and issues encountered from your "real life" practice experiences each week
3. Place yourself in the center of the discussion. Use "I" statements about your opinions, beliefs, attitudes, learnings, conclusions, experiences. For example, "I think that nurses should unionize" not "We talked about unions today."
4. State the link between your journal discussions, course objectives, practice experiences, and self learning goals. The course and practice objectives are broad enough for this to happen. By linking journal content with course objectives and your own learning objectives, discussions will be focused, "grounded" in the course, and more helpful
5. Remember to "reflect" on the learning experience rather than merely "recalling" the facts of the situation; facts are included as part of the "story" but it is your reflection on the meaning of the event to you that is most ciritcal.
6. As you write your journals, think about "why" things happened (or did not happen) and how this event affected your being as a nurse

RLP 11/22/98

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