L.E.A.R.N. Reflective Note Assignment – Guidelines
Please note: This assignment is to be 3 pages maximum, double-spaced! I will not read past 3 pages. Use APA format: Double-spaced, 12 font, one inch margins.
The goal of this assignment is to:
- Engage in self-reflection so that you can understand an event or situation better and understand why it was significant for you
- Use your new knowledge to grow as a person.
- Use your new knowledge to inform your nursing practice and grow as a nurse.
Click in link below Choose ONE (1) of these video scenarios to write your reflective learn note.
http://www.can-sim.ca/games/wellbaby/story_html5.html
How will you do this? You will use the LEARN process. Please use each of these categories to organize your writing:
- L – Look back on a situation or an event. Describe it briefly. Pick something SPECIFIC.
- E – Elaborate.
- What exactly happened during the scenario?
- If you are discussing a specific event, what were some of your initial thoughts and feelings? If you are discussing a situation, what are (were) some of your predominant thoughts and feelings?
- What surprised you or affected you?
- A – Analyze
- Consider your feelings and thoughts about the situation/event more deeply – why do you think you feel / felt (or reacted) the way you did? How do you think others feel /felt (or might feel/have felt) and what might they have been thinking?
- What are some of the beliefs, assumptions, feelings, and values that are/were operating for you in this event/situation? You may not have been aware of them until you started to reflect. This is an opportunity to truly LEARN about yourself. Tell the truth! No one will read these except me.
- What do the nursing /professional journal articles or the nursing / other credible websites have to say that can help you understand yourself and your event or situation better? Use at least one credible journal article. The article must be current (less than 5 years old). Make sure it is a NURSING journal (not medical journal). Make sure your writing includes APA format citations.
- Examples:
- Your boyfriend broke up with you and you were devastated (That goes in your L and E). Upon reflection you realize your self-esteem was poor (That’s part of your A). Do some research on self-esteem to understand yourself better and create new strategies. (That’s part of your A and/or R)
- You binge drink on the weekends. You know it doesn’t serve you. Do some research on, perhaps, how to identify if one’s drinking is a problem, how to identify if one is an alcoholic. And then what to do about it. (See the example above regarding what goes under which category of the LEARN process.)
- You can include the information from your research under A (Analyze) or include it in the R (Revise) section.
- R – Revise your approach
- Now that you have new knowledge about the event/ situation, new insights into yourself and /or others, and have reflected on the situation…
- What would you do differently? (State what you would do, not just what you would NOT do!!)
- What would you do the same? (Address such things as attitudes, thoughts, comments, actions/behaviours)
- What are the strengths within you that you can identify that are operating in the situation/event?
- What are the challenging areas within yourself that you would benefit from addressing? (Example: You have identified you get angry easily and it doesn’t serve you.)
- N – New perspective / direction
- What is the most significant learning that has taken place?
- How will this reflection influence and inform your future nursing practice? (Important! Do not omit!)
In addition to font type/size and margins, please use APA format. This includes organization/use of paragraphs, grammar, sentence structure, verb consistency, spelling, punctuation, appropriate references /citations in proper format, font size and type, margins, spacing. Include a title page and reference page.
Remember – the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) expects all nurses to engage in reflective practice. J
