How to write a reflective case study for your nursing degree.

reflective case study

Most nursing degrees require students to complete an assignment comprising a reflective case study. In this post, we consider the main aspects of this task, give examples of suitable cases and give the main points you will be covering.

Examples of suitable care episodes:

  • Recognition of deteriorating patient and how you instigated treatment or referral.
  • Communication in difficult circumstances, e.g. use of translation services for a specific patient/client
  • Safeguarding referral following suspicion during assessment
  • Management of an emergency incident e.g. fetal bradycardia or haemorrhage
  • De-escalation of a situation involving a mental health crisis
  • Assessment of a wound, with decisions on treatment and referral
  • Patient observations, e.g. fluid balance and appropriate treatment measures
  • Discharge and follow-up advice of a complex patient/client
  • Advocacy and promotion of informed choice e.g. infant feeding or induction of labour

What event or topic are you reflecting on?

  • Give a brief description. You don’t need to give all the details, but rather focus on
  • the event itself.
  • Too broad a focus can make it difficult to give the topic the attention it needs and
  • might be hard to give direction to your reflection, especially if you are reflecting in a group setting and everyone will want to make input.
  • Remember to keep things confidential.

Would you call this a positive or challenging event?

  • What feelings would you use to describe the event?
  • Even when things go right, they can still be challenging. Think about the outcomes of this event and whether you feel they could have been improved
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Explain what happened

  • Give a brief description of the event
  • How did you respond?
  • How did your team respond?
  • What did you feel during the event?
  • How did you feel afterwards?

Looking back

  • Are you satisfied with how you responded? If not, why not?
  • Do you think you worked effectively with your colleagues? If not, what would help effective work in the future?
  • Did you have all the support you needed? If not, what would have helped?
  • If in a group, was the group satisfied with how it responded? If not, why not?
  • Did the group work as an effective team?

Looking forward

  • If there is a similar event in the future, would you do anything differently?
  • What did you learn from this experience and/or your reflection on it?
  • How will this learning improve your practice?
  • How will this learning be used to the benefit of service users?
  • Are there lessons to be learned for your team/ your colleagues/ the policies or
  • systems you follow?
  • Did the things you learned after this event help you achieve any of your
  • development objectives?
  • Did this event help you identify new learning objectives?

This is the typical content for a reflective case study but make sure you follow the instructions you are issued with as not all reflective case study assignments are the same.


Posted by,
Glenn Stevens

Glenn is an academic writing and research specialist with 15 years experience as a writing coach and PhD supervisor. Also a qualified English teacher, he previously had an extensive career in publishing. He is currently the editor of this website. Glenn lives in the UK.
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