GUIDELINES FOR CLINICAL JOURNALING
Journalling Template
In your entries attempt to:
• Analyse your own performance, be honest with yourself
• Evaluate your gains in understanding and completing tasks
• Verbalize how you feel about your learning
• Make connections with theory learned in class and labs
• Demonstrate transfer of learning from class/lab to clinical
• Integrate the concepts taught in other courses, i.e. Pharmacology, Counselling

What?, So What?, Now What?

What? – Describe briefly but objectively what happened in clinical.
• Answer the question, “What did I do, read, see, hear etc?

So What? – Interpret the events
• Explain what you saw and heard;
• Your new insights;
• Your connections with class/lab learning, your feelings etc;
• Your hypotheses, if any; your conclusions
• Answer the question what might this mean? What was the reason I did this nursing action? What was the result? Was the result the same as I anticipated?

Now What? – Evaluate the effectiveness of what was observed/learned and done
• Make judgements clearly connected to observations made. Be honest, use constructive criticism with yourself.
• Evaluation answers the question, “What is my opinion about what I observed or experienced? Why?
• Plan how this information will be useful to you
o What are your recommendations? (Be concrete) Consider how this learning experience can help you in the future?