Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize the literature to determine if reflective writing is an effective tool to develop the clinical judgment skills of prelicensure nursing students. Evidence-based practice recommendations for the nurse educator will be made.|Background: There are more than three million nurses in the United States, making up the majority of the healthcare workforce (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). Sixty-five percent of nursing errors are due to poor clinical judgment and half of those errors are made by novice nurses (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2019). Critical thinking skills are essential for safe nursing practice; however, developing critical thinking skills is the most difficult aspect of nursing education (Freeling & Parker, 2015; Schuelke & Barnason, 2017).|Methods: A review of current literature was completed in search of data supporting reflective writing as a means of developing nursing students’ and working nurses’ critical thinking skills and/or clinical judgment. Searches in both the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Google Scholar were completed using the key words critical thinking, clinical judgment, clinical reasoning, reflective writing, and reflective journaling. Articles from 2015-2020 were included for review.|Results: While the majority of articles were Level VI, one mixed-methods study, Level V, a descriptive correlational design, Level IV, a randomized control trial, Level II, and one systematic review, Level I, were used in the literature review.|Conclusion: Reflective writing is an effective tool for developing clinical judgment in nursing students and is most effective when students are properly taught reflective writing technique and are given detailed feedback to improve their reflective writing throughout their education. Educators are encouraged to use the resources provided from this project to incorporate reflective writing into their practice.|Keywords: critical thinking, clinical judgment, clinical reasoning, reflective writing, and reflective journaling.