Reflective Nursing Journal: Analyzing Teaching Experience in Nursing

This reflective journal entry details a nursing student's first experience teaching undergraduate nursing students in a practical setting. The student employed a variety of teaching methods, including didactic teaching, PowerPoint presentations, and practical demonstrations, focusing on topics such as patient handling, communication, and nebulizer administration. The journal utilizes Gibbs' reflective model to analyze the teaching experience, describing the initial feelings of nervousness and the subsequent evaluation of the effectiveness of the teaching strategies. The student reflects on the positive aspects, such as student engagement and interest, and identifies areas for improvement, including the need for more interactive learning activities and enhanced preparation. The analysis considers the diverse cultural backgrounds of the students and the importance of adapting teaching methods to accommodate different learning styles. The journal concludes with an action plan to refine future teaching practices and enhance student learning outcomes.

Running head: REFLECTIVE NURSING JOURNAL
REFLECTIVE NURSING JOURNAL
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Introduction:
Reflective practice is a process of analysing and evaluation of the individual’s own
experience. In the teaching practice, reflection is extremely necessary as it helps in evaluating the
effectiveness of the teaching practice (Redmond, 2017). With the help of reflection teachers can
increase or modify their quality of teaching practice that helps in the professional as well as
personal development (Solum et al., 2016). It helps in increasing in learning of the students as
well as their performance. Reflective practice in teaching helps in the fixing the teaching
strategies or ideas that do not went well in the in the previous learning experience (Pretorius &
Ford, 2016).
In order to gauge success within the nursing society it is essential that the teachers focus
on the nursing program that is conducted to enhance the outcome of nursing program. Concept-
established learning is defined as the method that will focus on improving the nursing program
outcome, as this will enable the nursing students to effectively engage in their education process
energetically and develop an active learning surrounding, which will assist the nursing students
to retain their information and knowledge regarding the subjects included in the teaching lesson
(Flott & Linden, 2016). Apart from these, the Didactic teaching method has also been used
which aims to provide teacher centered approach.
This essay mainly focus on the reflection of the teaching practice who had been taking
practical classes of a nursing subjects. In order to reflect, the teaching experience of the educator
Gibbs reflective model can be used. Gibbs reflective model is one of the most common model
that can be used to reflect the experiences of the individual (Al-Jubouri & Al-Jubouri, 2019). The
model consist of six different parts. First is description where the whole scenario is to be

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discussed, second is feelings where the feeling during the events of an individual has been
discussed, third is evaluation where good and bad points of the incidents is discussed, fourth is
analysis where the whole situation is analysed, fifth is conclusion which concludes the reflective
assignment and last is action plan where the action that can be depicted in future to avoid the
previous mistakes is discussed in detail (Johns, 2017).
Description:
Teaching practice helps the teachers in providing better training to the students by the
help of providing enhance training to the students that assist the nursing students in providing
better care to the patient (Muijs & Reynolds, 2017). It is the responsibility of the teacher to
provide effective training to the nursing students. Being an educator it is my responsibility to
provide efficient education and training to the nurse which will help them in providing efficient
patient care in future. Efficient training helps in avoiding medical errors in patient care. Practical
classes enhances the clinical practical knowledge of the students (Valiee et al., 2016). During
my first teaching class, I was assigned to take practical nursing classes of the nursing students. In
the practical nursing classes, different activities were conducted by me which enhances the
practical knowledge of the students, as it is extremely important for a nurse to have practical
knowledge about how to take care of the patient. To enhance the practical knowledge of the
students, I applied different knowledge such as visual representation, clinical exposure to the
patient, lesson plan preparation. One of the oldest method of teaching in the nursing students is
the didactic teaching method. Didactic teaching method involves a teacher centered approach
where the nursing faculty teaches the students and the students learn by active listening. Active
listening is defined as one of the finest method of learning. It helps the students to enhance their
understanding of the nursing. Students who participate in the active listening procedure, easily

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understand the knowledge of the students as well as also assist in long term remembering
(Ahmadi, 2016). To enhance active listening of the students, I applied different procedure such
as, slide preparation. Power point presentation. I prepared the slide which contains the strategy
that can help an individual in patient handling. I divided the lesson plan into different parts such
as, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5. Part 1 includes the strategy of handing the patient of
different age such as, children, adult and older adult. In part 1 of the lesson, I started with
strategies that can be implemented by the nurse in order to deal with the pediatric nurse. The
most important strategies in handling patient of any age is the communication. Communication is
one of the most important tool that can be used in the providing effective treatment to the patient.
It aids to build a goof rapport between the patient and the nurse or any healthcare staff which
helps in increasing the recovery speed of the patient (Arnold & Boggs, 2019). Hence, in order to
do that, it is important for the nurse to aware about the importance of the effective
communication in the nursing field. In case of pediatric patient, communication among the
healthcare staff and the care taker of the children as well as along with the children is extremely
necessary. In such case nurse have to communicate at their level to make them understand
(Stewart, 2016).
Power-point presentation is considered as the latest and most widely used slide
presentation software that has gained an enormous part within the instructional setting. The
major benefit of using power-point slide presentation is that it effectively engage the students
with the enhanced skill development facility that assist in better learning procedure (Abrami et
al., 2015). This is considered as the most helpful way of providing the students with the best
teacher-centred method that will enhance the learning approach of the student. I being a nurse
educator aim at providing best teaching ways to their students encompass the critical thinking

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and problem-solving technique that will deliver supreme quality of education to the nursing
students. Power-point slide presentation comprises of innovative visual impact that attracts the
attention of the students as any nursing research or medical-surgical-nursing procedure can be
explained to the entire class using animated videos that will help the students to focus and
understand the concept easily. There are different nursing subjects that require detail information
and audience focus therefore, using power-point slide presentation will help the students to gain
relevant information and analyze each lesson appropriately (Bradshaw & Hultquist, 2016).
Hence, I used power-point slide presentation to increase the curiosity and spontaneity among the
nursing students to learn the subjects in a much better way, which will in turn enhance the
interdisciplinary approach of each individual student.
Apart from the lesson, I also arranged practical classes for the students where the students
where educated practically. In the practical classes the students were educated about
administration technique of the nebulizers, measure of blood pressure, vital signs assessment
techniques and other techniques which help the nursing students to take care of the patient (Lee
et al., 2017).
Feeling
It was my first experience of teaching an undergraduate nursing student hence, I was in a
complete dilemma to select which teaching strategy will work best for the students. I had
addressed the entire class and decided to first get introduce myself to each of the student that will
help me to communicate better with each student and I can gain confidence in teaching them. I
had a 2 hour class with them where I had to the cover the topic medical-surgical nursing that
requires enhanced attention and focus from the student’s side. I had started the class by
highlighting the lesson plan that comprised of different topics, which will be covered in the 2

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hour class. I was prepared for conducting my first class but was not sure if the students will
interact effectively and participate in the class. I had also prepared a short power-point
presentation that included the procedure techniques and hand-hygiene protocol technique, which
is considered as a crucial step in nursing profession (Jiang et al., 2016). I had to conduct a
practical session on “how to administer nebuliser”, which was a challenge for me because it
required huge effort and a clear idea of information from my side. I had already made a short
animated video that demonstrated the steps of how to administer nebuliser, which will further
help the students to gain a clear idea of using nebuliser and administrating it to the patient. I was
nervous at the first instance but slowly as I started communicating with each student and tried to
understand which teaching strategy would be best for the class so that they are attentive and
develop the motivation to learn (Oxford, 2016). The classroom had a mixed culture of students
with different cultural background, hence, I had to be sure that I should address each individual
student and make sure that they are participating in the class energetically. I had a clear idea in
my mind that I would interact with the class by asking few questions that would give me a
general idea if the students are understanding the conceit or if the concept taught in the class are
clear to them. I felt little better and less nervous gradually as the class was silent and manageable
and I could easily communicate my thoughts and information to the class. After 30 minutes of
teaching, I was confident and determined that I could teach the entire class and identify the
strength and weakness of my teaching plan that can be further modified for better learning
(Lewis, Wheeler & Carter, 2017).
Evaluation
After the 2 hours of teaching I was confident that I could teach and address the entire
class and help them to feel motivated for better learning process. I had evaluated that the class

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was more active and involved in the PowerPoint slide presentation, as they could visually see
and interpret themselves. The animated video that taught them regarding the administration of
nebuliser gained huge attention and focus and the student were proactively asking me questions
and were curious of how the entire procedure took place (Bastable, 2017). As the students were
in undergraduate course, they were more curious to learn the practical aspect of their course and
showed high interest in such activity. I realised that an effective question-answer and discussion
session would have helped each student to interact among themselves and clear their doubts that
would have helped them gain knowledge and share whatever they have understood with each.
This discussion session would have helped me to understand and identify how much each
individual student had understood from the class and which areas of learning require more
attention and detailed learning. The good experience of teaching this undergraduate class was
that the students were silent and were showing interest in each topic and were proactively asking
me questions that was assisting me to understand my individual strength and weakness regarding
the topics (Billings & Halstead, 2015). There were few questions from the student’s side that was
not answered by me confidently or I was not very sure of what exactly can be the appropriate
answer for such question, hence, it helped me to understand that I require more detail homework
before conducting the class. I realised that there were few students who did not show much
interest in the class and were not attentive and were sitting in the last benches. Hence, I had to
make sure that I ask such students to sit in the first benches and pay more attention to the class.
From, the complete teachings experience I had evaluated and understood that I require to adapt
more innovative strategies to teach or address the class that will help me to gain the attention of
each individual student and allow the students to develop an interactive class with more
exchange of knowledge and information (Herrman, 2015). The students had shown increased

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level of interest and attentiveness towards the practical aspect of classes and were more
interested in developing a hands-on experience that was not fulfilled from my side as I had not
included any hands-on experiment for the student rather focused more on visual learning. Hence,
I had to adapt and incorporate more hands-on experiment classes for them that will bind their
interest in the class and also enhance their learning skills.
Analysis:
From the situation, it can be analysed that teaching a student is one of the most difficult
and responsible role as it helps in enhancing the knowledge of the students that will help them in
providing better patient care in the future. During the teaching session, I applied different method
to enhance the learning process of an individual such as preparation of lesson plan, slide
preparation and clinical exposure to enhance practical knowledge of the students. Different
methods have different impact on the students. While conducting the lesson plan, I analysed that
there are some students who were actively listening to me and were actively involved in the class
while there were students who were feeling bored and were not able to gain learning from the
lesson plan. The slide presentation have more impact on the individual as compared to lesson
plan. The knowledge that has been provided to the students through slide last longer on their
memory due to the inclusion of visual representation in to the slide presentation (Clark & Mayer,
2016). From the incident, it is analyzed that majority of the students were active during the
practical or clinical exposure session. The students participated actively in assessment process
such as vital signs assessment, blood pressure measure, and medication administration technique.
From the situation, I was also able to analyze my weakness and strength from the session. Apart
from the weakness and the strength, I was also able to analyze the gap that effected the learning
of the students who are from different culture, less attentive during the class and the students

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who are having problem in understanding the lesson conducted by me. Hence, I analysed that in
order to avoid such circumstances in the future, I had to enhance my teaching practice. There
were students who have asked me different question, but to the lack of that particular knowledge,
I was not able to provide them with proper answer.
Conclusion:
From the above essay, it can be concluded that conducting a practical session for the
nursing students helps in enhances the practical knowledge of the students. In the reflective
assignment, I have discussed the experience of the teaching practice. The essay includes different
strategies such as, implementation of the lesson plan, preparation of the slide and providing
clinical exposure to the students. All the students were educated irrespective of their background.
Lesson plan which is primarily used to enhance the theoretical knowledge of the students has
been divided into 5 different parts. Apart from the lesson plan, slide preparation has also been
used to enhance the critical knowledge of the students. While conducting the slide presentation it
has been observed that, slide presentation have more impact on the individual as compared to
lesson plan due to the inclusion of visual representation in to the slide presentation. In addition to
these methods, clinical exposure have also been provided to the students to enhance their clinical
knowledge. As this was my first experience, I was extremely happy as well as nervous in order
to provide education to the patient. Instead of being extremely nervous, I tried my best to
enhance the knowledge of the patient and also ensure that each and every students have gained
learning from the process. As it was my first teaching there are certain points which I should
involve in my teaching plan that might have more influence on the students. By considering the
incidents and my action during the incidents, I tried to evaluate my strength and weakness. After
evaluating my weakness which is, I missed to implement the discussion session among the

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students. Discussion session helps evaluate the knowledge that the students has gained from the
teaching practice (Arias et al., 2016). Analysis of the whole situation has been conducted and
from the incident it is analysed that, major involvement of the students have been observed
during the clinical exposure. After conducting the teaching session, I acknowledged my mistakes
which I should work on in order to provide better education to the nursing students in future.
Language barrier among the students who are from different cultural background and myself has
also been observed which is considered as a major drawback. These mistakes are absence of
discussion session, no efficient strategies has been used that might help to handle students from
different cultural background.
Action Plan
From the complete teaching experience that I had gained after my first class I understood
that it was crucial for me as a lecturer to convey my thoughts and idea to the students in a clear
and systematic manner and I should focus on student management as well. Student management
was required to identify the students who lacked interest in the class and were not attentive and
make efforts from my side to pay more attention to such students and make them sit in the first
benches. No effective student management was done from my side before conducting my first
teaching plan that helped me to understand which areas of my teaching required changes and
modification (Valiee et al., 2016). I had to focus on organizing my ideas in a more clear way and
try to make a PowerPoint presentation as the student had shown high interest and attention
towards presentation teaching and include the points that were relevant and required more detail
attention. I will also focus on developing a discussion session after each class where the students
will interact among themselves and clear their thoughts and idea among themselves (Forbes et
al., 2016). This would also help me to identify and locate which students had understood how

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much and which areas of my teaching requires modification. I would ask the students to write
down their questions and doubts in their note book and after the class they will one by one ask
their questions and clear the doubts among themselves. The student who is asking the doubt will
raise their question and if any other student has the answer to their question they will explain the
entire concept, which will be beneficial for me to arrange and manage the entire class (Oermann
& Gaberson, 2016). I had also focused on adopting the method of giving homework to the
students and before the next class starts the student need to submit their homework in a form of
presentation that will be displayed after each class and the students could further discuss.
Appropriate use of technology in the class would help me to gain the interest and attention of
each student that will be linked to different professional development program that will further
enhance the learning and teaching capability of each individual student (Carvalho et al., 2017).
As it is observed that there are students who are from different cultural background and are not
fluent in English, hence a language barrier exists between me and the students. In order to
minimize the language barrier, I will try to learn language or will use interpreter during my
teaching session. I will also prepare myself better in order to provide sufficient answer to the
students during the teaching session.

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