One of the core competencies of academic nurse educators is to model critical and reflective thinking to the students and develops opportunities for learners to establish critical thinking skills (Christensen & Simmons, 2019). Students need to develop their critical thinking skills to be able to manage today’s complex patient needs. Reflective journaling is a learning strategy to improve critical thinking skills for all types of learners.
A literature search was completed on the teaching strategy of reflective journaling to enhance critical thinking skills using Google, EBSCOhost and Ovid Databases. Key works used in the search where critical thinking, reflective journaling and teaching strategies. The evidence showed that journaling develops critical thinking skills that is needed to be prepared as a professional nurse. Bradshaw et al., stated (2021) that in reflective journaling reflection is drawn from an experience or situation where information is soaked up and then understanding can be obtained and applied. Reflective journaling or reflection allows the nurse to review the events of the experience. The nurse can to develop critical thinking skills by reflecting on his or her behavior and action to gain incite, new ideas and professional practice(Zhang et al., 2017)
The development of critical thinking skills assist the nursing student in problem-solving, decisions making and interpreting data to identify the urgency of the situation (Shirazi & Heidari, 2019). The nurse that develops critical thinking skills through reflective journaling will be successful in the profession of nursing. Shirazi & Heidari found (2019) that the development of critical thinking skills was directly correlated to learning style and academic achievement.
The nurse educator can apply reflective journaling as a strategy in the classroom to improve critical thinking skills of the nursing students. The use of reflective journals in nursing curriculum can be utilized with all types of students. The use of reflective journaling is especially effective with adult learns. This type of learning strategy allows the adult learners to draw on their past and current experience(Billings & Halstead, 2019). The reflective journaling learning strategy could be utilized after clinical rotations in the classroom to be shared with the class in small groups or with the entire class. This would allow the student to share with the class their experience and discuss problems or situations that occurred during the clinical rotation. The goal is for the student to process and apply their feelings, thoughts and what is learned to other situations. The educator can use the reflection process to adapt to the students’ reaction using the reflection in action concept.
In summary the use of reflective journaling improves critical thinking skills for the nursing student to gain insight after academic and clinical rotations. The use of journaling has been proven to improve critical thinking skills and develops the nursing students ability to be successful as a professional nurse.

Respond #2 Gwen
Enhancing critical thinking skills is one of the most difficult challenges an educator must conquer. Developing sound reasoning skills is vital in preserving the profession’s standards and promoting quality patient outcomes (Bradshaw, 2021). The educator acts as a guide in creating strategies to integrate learning by formulating opinions and drawing conclusions to solve a challenging scenario self-sufficiently. Thinking critically is more than just thinking clearly or rationally; it is about thinking independently (Crockett, 2021). There are several teaching strategies used to enhance critical learning for students. One approach is Problem-Based Learning (PBL).
PBL is an educational process in which learning is centered on real-world problems instead of discrete, subject-related courses (Bradshaw, 2021). This teaching strategy cultivates the student’s critical reasoning by formulating ideas and solutions to actual and difficult situations rather than the mere presentation of facts and concepts. In a typical PBL setting, learners are triggered by a problem to activate their previous knowledge and experience and make sense of the phenomenon. Hence, the underpinning philosophy of PBL is that learning can be considered a “constructive, self-directed, collaborative and contextual” activity (Yew & Goh, 2016). A study by Strobel and van Barneveld analyzed a number of meta-analyses on the effectiveness of PBL and found that it is more effective than traditional approaches when the measurement of learning outcomes focused on long-term knowledge retention, performance or skill-based assessment, and mixed knowledge and skills (Yew & Goh, 2016). Based on this study, PBL was found effective in training competent and skilled practitioners by promoting retention of knowledge and skills.
Using PBL in the nursing field provided a high significance in promoting self-confidence. Students who are comfortable with using the traditional approach may need support and guidance in transitioning to PBL. In the healthcare setting, students are given a particular situation, such as an alert and oriented patient who suddenly complains of slurring of speech, has trouble finding words, and has a significant weakness to one side of the body. Based on the presented symptoms, the patient might be having a stroke. Students can work in a group and discuss the situation, examine their previous knowledge and experience, generate learning issues, and brainstorm what to do with the given problem to come up with a solution. The students may discuss calling a code stroke, preparing the patient for a CT scan of the brain, and checking for the patient’s vital signs and blood sugar. Further discussion can be done by determining first the blood sugar level as hypoglycemia can be a stroke mimic. Students must independently deliberate on the given scenario and work together to solve the problem. The educator acts as a guide during the learning process and also provides feedback and evaluation.