Abstract:

The aim of the study was to find out about perception of reflective journaling among undergraduate nursing students in Babcock University, Ilisha-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria. The objectives were to determine the students’ perception of reflective journaling and the perceived meaning of reflective journal writing. This study utilized a descriptive research design. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaire. Population of 130 students in 400 and 500 levels were used. Results of the reliability test, using Cronbach’s alpha of all the constructs measuring the perception and the explanatory variables were well above the recommended minimum of 0.70. Results revealed that, a significantly higher proportion of the participants have positive perception towards reflective journaling in the undergraduate nursing program in Babcock University. The mean score of perception of reflective journaling was 1.93205. Most of the students were able to correlate theory with practice (96.2%) with the mean of 1.9615. Data evidences also revealed that, the status of perceived meaning of reflective journaling of nursing students’ clinical learning and practice is high. This inference is evident in the fact that overall criterion weighted mean score (1.805147) is greater than the average Likert scale of 1.5.

Keywords: Critical thinking, Journaling, Perception, Reflective writing, Nursing Students.

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