Background: According to the diversification of the health needs and the expansion\nof health disparities, public health nurses need to improve their practical\ncapabilities, starting from basic education in graduate and undergraduate\ncourses. And Reflective Practice with using reflective journal is one way of\nimproving practical capabilities. The purpose of this study was to investigate\nthe relationship between the volume of reflective journal and the quality of\nprogress in the reflective cycle. Methods: The participants in this study were\n20 junior students majoring in public health nursing (hereinafter ââ?¬Å?PHN studentsââ?¬Â)\nat a university in the Chugoku area, Japan. We asked the participants\nto answer the questions on Reflective Practice Skills (RPS) composed of six\ncriteria corresponding to the six questions of Gibbs on the reflective cycle before\nand after they started writing RJ. The volume of reflective writing was\nmeasured by the number of characters written by the PHN students in RJ of\nthe reflective practice for three months. The study plan was approved by the\nEthics Committee for Nursing Study, Okayama University. Results: Although\nthe average total RPS score showed a change of about 3 points as a result of\nthe 3-month RJ writing exercise, no correlation was observed between the RPS\nscore and the RJ writing volume (r = 0.175). However, we did observe a moderately\npositive correlation between the RPS score and the RJ writing volume\nwith regard to Items 5 and 6 (r = 0.475 and r = 0.444, respectively). Conclusion:\nThis study indicated that detailed RJ writing helps to complete the reflective\ncycle all the way to theorization and action planning, and that the volume\nof writing may serve as a criterion for qualitative evaluation.
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