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Dr. Wheeler is Professor of Nursing, Ms. Butell is Professor Emerita, Dr. Epeneter is Associate Dean and Professor of Nursing, Ms. Langford is Associate Professor of Nursing, and Ms. Taylor is Professor of Nursing, Linfield College, Portland, Oregon.
The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
This article describes a guided reflection on practice activity used in clinical praxis during students' final clinical course. The purposes of this activity are to increase the ability of students to reflect on practice while narrating a story describing an event that occurred during clinical practice and to develop their ability to assist others in reflective practice. Reflective practice is one of the authors' program's modes of inquiry used to facilitate the formation of students as professional nurses.
Theory Base
The authors' school of nursing program uses an adaptation of Pesut's and Herman's ( 1998 ) outcome present state test model (OPT) to guide students in developing clinical reasoning. Reflection is a key component of that model. The process of reflection begins as the student "returns to the experience, recalls what has occurred, and replays" it ( Nielsen, Stragnell, & Jester, 2007 , p. 513).
The guided reflection activity is based on the work of several educators and researchers. Tanner ( 2006 ) stated that learning is enhanced as students reflect on and describe their clinical experiences. Ireland ( 2008 ) noted that reflection on practice is essential to the development of evidence-based practice. In a study of the relationship between critical reflective practice and other factors affecting the engagement of nurses in their work, Lawrence ( 2011 ) found a positive relationship between nurses who actively engaged in reflection on practice and their ability to function optimally in their roles. Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, and Day ( 2010 ) discussed the importance of students sharing their experiences in a group setting as a way to expand their clinical learning. When using a narrative pedagogy approach, faculty engage students in understanding the context of their clinical stories and help students question their assumptions, discover knowledge gaps, admit misunderstandings, and discover insights and aha moments ( Ironside & Hayden-Miles, 2012 ). Reflection on practice is a means to facilitate the development of clinical reasoning or judgment in...