The Making of a Butterfly: Reflective Practice in Nursing Education

Reflective practice is the cyclic process of internally examining and exploring an issue of concern, triggered by an experience, which creates and clarifies meaning in terms of self, existing knowledge, and experience. This is a descriptive phenomenological study that explores the guided reflections of eighteen RN-to-BSN students. The themes derived from the student text include (a) reflection in-action; (b) reflection on-action in daily nursing practice; (c) time, autonomy, experience, and fear were identified as barriers. By integrating reflective pedagogies into nursing curriculum, nurse educators can help students develop competence in reflective practice and enhance their learning for a lifetime.