Developing nursing leadership skills through reflective journaling: a nursing professor’s personal reflection

Reflective journaling can be an effective teaching strategy in undergraduate nursing education. In particular, reflective journaling has been shown to increase the learner’s critical thinking and future application of new knowledge. This personal reflective paper describes and discusses the design, implementation, evaluation and effectiveness of a reflective journaling assignment in assisting undergraduate nursing students with developing nursing leadership skills. The assignment was implemented across seven sections of a collaborative nursing degree program and students were given the opportunity to provide their feedback on the usefulness of reflective journaling in helping them develop stronger leadership skills. This paper concludes with a discussion of revisions and recommendations for a more successful implementation of this assignment.