Student nurse placement reflection: a worked example

Pick a small moment, use a model, and say what you would do differently. A full worked example.

Pick a moment, not a placement

The commonest mistake is trying to reflect on twelve weeks. A reflection works on one moment: a conversation, a handover, a mistake, something that sat with you on the bus home.

If you cannot say when it happened and who was in the room, it is too big. Narrow it until you can.

Use a model, because your marker is looking for one

Most programmes ask for a recognised model. Gibbs is the usual choice, because its six stages leave nowhere to hide: Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion and Action plan. Check your own module handbook first, since some ask for Driscoll or Kolb.

The marks are rarely in Description. They are in Analysis, where you say why it went the way it did, and in the Action plan, where you say what changes.

A worked example, using Gibbs

Description: on my second week on an acute ward, a patient asked me what her scan had shown. I knew the result had come back but not what had been said to her. I told her I would find her nurse, and did.

Feelings: I felt caught out, and then embarrassed at how long I took to answer. Afterwards I worried she thought I was hiding something.

Evaluation: what went well is that I did not guess, and I came back with someone who could answer. What went less well is that I left her alone with the question for nearly twenty minutes without explaining why.

Analysis: my instinct was to protect myself from giving the wrong information, which was right, but I treated it as a question about information when for her it was mostly about waiting. Saying nothing about the delay made the wait longer, not shorter.

Conclusion: I could have said plainly that her nurse would come and talk it through with her, and roughly when. Not knowing the answer is not the same as having nothing to say.

Action plan: when I am asked something outside what I can answer, I will say what I am going to do about it and when, and I will come back to the person even if the answer is not ready yet.

What markers are looking for

One event, described in enough detail that a reader can picture it.
Honesty about the parts that did not go well. A reflection where you did everything right reads as a description.
Analysis that reaches for something beyond the event: what you were taught, a guideline, a conversation with your supervisor.
An action plan that is specific enough to fail. "I will communicate better" cannot fail, so it does not count.
Your own voice. Markers read hundreds of these and generic writing is obvious.

Keep it anonymous

No names, no ward names, no dates that would identify a person, and nothing that would let a reader work out who you mean from the combination of details. Refer to people by role: the patient, her nurse, my practice supervisor.

This is not just a university rule. The Code you will practise under sets the same expectation, and it is worth being in the habit before you are registered.

If you are stuck at the blank page

Say it out loud first. Most people can talk about what happened for two minutes without any trouble, and then cannot write the first line.

ReflectReady sorts your spoken words under the Gibbs headings, or Driscoll, Kolb or Schön, so you get your own account back to read and edit. It never writes the reflection for you, and a word-for-word score shows you how much of the text is still literally yours. Free to try.

Check your university’s rules on using any AI tool for assessed work, and declare it if they ask you to.

Sources: University of Edinburgh: Reflection Toolkit, Gibbs’ reflective cycle, NMC: the Code.