Ways in which a nursing student can use reflection to develop clinical decision-making skills

Reflection is an active tool in developing clinical decision-making skills in nursing students. The following steps are of great help to nursing students in making effective use of reflection:

• A clinical experience in detail: To this end, consider one clinical experience that was especially challenging, interesting, or informative. This might be a case where there was a sudden unexpected change in the health status of a patient, and where he or she had a conflict with a colleague, and also where the nursing student had to make a clinical decision under difficult conditions.
• Reflections on experience: The student should reflect on the experience by asking open-ended questions such as, What happened? What was my role? What were my thoughts and feelings? What were the results? The nursing student should seek to be objective as much as possible and also note any emotions that came up in the course of the experience.
• Analyze the experience: After reflecting on the experience, the nursing student needs to deeply analyze the same patterns, connections, and probably explanations. This may include questions such as: What were the factors that made the difference? What could have happened if things were to go differently? What did you learn from this experience?
• Areas of improvement: This analysis will help the nursing student identify areas in which they could improve their clinical decision-making skills. It could include instances where knowledge gaps need to be addressed, new ways that they should employ in handling similar situations in the future, or who they should seek out for guidance and mentorship. Develop an action plan.
• Finally, the nursing student should develop an action plan so that they will be able to use what they have learned in future clinical situations. This may include setting some goals, identifying opportunities to practice new skills, or getting feedback from colleagues or supervisors. The use of reflection in this way would allow the nursing students to come to an intense realization concerning their clinical experiences and be able to apply such realizations to the development of their clinical decision-making over time.