ADNG1200 Clinical I: How to Complete the Reflective Journal Assignment
A prompt-by-prompt guide to the ADNG1200 Reflective Journal — what each of the four prompts actually asks for, how the 10-point rubric scores your reflection vs. your completeness, how to locate and cite a geriatric peer-reviewed article in APA, and where most students fall short before they hit the word count.
You have the assignment in front of you. Four prompts, a 1,500–2,000 word window, a 10-point rubric split evenly between completeness and depth of reflection, and a requirement to locate, summarize, and cite a peer-reviewed journal article on geriatric healthcare using APA format. Knowing what the prompts say and knowing what they require you to produce are two different problems. This guide walks through every component in sequence — what each prompt is looking for, what the rubric rewards and penalizes, how to approach the self-reflection sections without writing superficially, and how to handle the literature search and citation for Prompt 4.
This guide does not write the journal for you. It explains the structure, what each prompt demands, and where students consistently lose marks so you can write a response that satisfies both the completeness and reflection halves of the rubric. The assignment covers clinical experience in a healthcare setting with a geriatric population, but the reflection framework applies across clinical placements.
What This Guide Covers
Understanding the Assignment Structure
The ADNG1200 Reflective Journal is a single Word document containing responses to all four journal prompts. The assignment is not four separate submissions — everything goes into one document, double-spaced, with a total length between 1,500 and 2,000 words. Falling below 1,500 words triggers mark reductions in the Completeness column regardless of how insightful your reflection is. Exceeding 2,000 words also costs marks under the same column. Both limits are enforced.
The four prompts cover distinct but related areas of professional development: your emotional readiness and personal goals at the start of clinical (Prompt 1); your communication patterns and how others perceive you (Prompt 2); the values, assumptions, and beliefs that drive your behavior with patients and colleagues (Prompt 3); and engagement with current evidence on geriatric health needs, including a peer-reviewed article with APA citation (Prompt 4). Together they map onto two learning themes stated in the assignment: Professional Identity and Spirit of Inquiry.
The instructions specify a double-spaced Word document. Organize your response by labeling each prompt clearly (e.g., “Journal Prompt 1,” “Journal Prompt 2,” etc.) so the grader can locate each section without searching. Sub-questions within each prompt should all be addressed within your response to that prompt — do not leave any sub-question unanswered, even briefly. Each unanswered sub-question reduces the Completeness score.
How the Rubric Scores Your Work
The rubric has two equally weighted criteria: Complete (5 points) and Reflection (5 points). Understanding what each criterion rewards and penalizes tells you exactly how to allocate your effort. Most students lose marks on Reflection, not Completeness — because writing something about every sub-question is easier than demonstrating genuine insight.
Completeness — 5 Points
Awarded for addressing all prompts with sufficient depth and staying within the word window. The rubric scores this on a 5-level scale:
- Level 5 (full marks): All prompts addressed thoroughly, 1,500–2,000 words
- Level 4: All prompts addressed with fair depth, but entry is either below 1,250 words or exceeds 2,000
- Level 3: At least 2 prompts somewhat addressed, 1,000+ words
- Level 2: Only 1 prompt somewhat addressed, answers incomplete, 750+ words
- Level 1: No prompts clearly addressed, or entry is below 750 words, or entry is only a recitation of clinical events
Reflection — 5 Points
Awarded for the quality of self-examination and connection to theory across all four prompts. The rubric distinguishes between:
- Level 5 (full marks): All prompts demonstrate insight connecting personal experience to theory; draws on self-knowledge and past experience to generate new professional understanding
- Level 4: At least 2 of 4 prompts demonstrate this level of insight
- Level 3: At least 1 prompt demonstrates the connection; others are superficial
- Level 2: Shares experience objectively without genuine insight; reflection vague
- Level 1: Minimal reflection; entry mostly recites what happened during clinical
The rubric explicitly distinguishes between entries that “objectively share experience” and those that “draw upon self-knowledge and past experience to gain insight.” Writing “I saw a nurse administer medications and I observed how she communicated with the patient” is a report. Writing “Watching how the nurse adjusted her pace and vocabulary when the patient seemed confused made me realize I default to using clinical language even when a simpler explanation would reach the person better” is reflection. The difference is whether your writing produces new understanding — not just a record of what happened.
Prompt 1: Feelings, Past Experiences, Strengths, and Goals
Prompt 1 is built around four sub-questions that move from your immediate emotional state into the factors behind it, your existing strengths, and where you want to grow. The explicit instruction is to identify feelings — not thoughts. The rubric will score down if you write “I think clinical will be challenging” instead of “I feel anxious because I am unsure whether I will know what to do when a resident needs urgent attention.” The distinction is not semantic; it is the foundation of professional self-awareness.
“I feel…” — Identify the Feeling, Not the Thought
Complete the statement literally: “I feel nervous,” “I feel excited but overwhelmed,” “I feel uncertain about my competence at the bedside.” After naming the feeling, elaborate — describe what the feeling is like and when it appears most strongly. One specific scenario is more credible than a general statement. Avoid constructions like “I feel like this will be a good experience” — that is a thought, not a feeling.
Past Experiences and Perceptions Contributing to Those Feelings
Trace the feeling backward. If you feel anxious, what prior experiences — in healthcare settings, in high-pressure situations, in your personal history — could be feeding that anxiety? If you feel confident, where did that confidence come from? This sub-question asks you to be specific. A vague answer like “my past experiences have shaped me” says nothing. Name the experience or perception, then connect it explicitly to the feeling you identified above.
Personal Qualities, Strengths, and Talents
This is not an invitation to list generic strengths like “hardworking” or “good listener.” Identify qualities that are specifically relevant to clinical nursing practice and that you can connect to real evidence — something you have done or a situation where that quality was visible. Examples: ability to stay calm under pressure (evidenced by a specific moment), empathy developed through caregiving experience, attention to detail from a previous technical role. The stronger your specificity here, the more the grader sees self-awareness rather than a resume.
One Goal for Personal Self-Awareness and Growth
The goal must be related to personal self-awareness, not clinical skills. “I want to learn how to take a blood pressure more accurately” is a clinical skill goal — it does not belong here. A self-awareness goal addresses how you see yourself, how you interact with others, or how your internal states affect your professional behavior. Example: “I want to notice when I am making assumptions about a resident based on their appearance or age, and pause before acting on those assumptions.” The goal should connect directly to something you identified in the previous sub-questions.
Prompt 2: Communication Style and Improvement Strategies
Prompt 2 focuses specifically on communication — how you communicate, how you intend to come across, how you think you are actually perceived, and two concrete strategies for improvement. This prompt links directly to the professional nursing context: therapeutic communication is a core clinical competency, and the healthcare team’s ability to coordinate care depends on nurses who understand their own communication patterns and can adjust them.
Prompt 3: Values, Assumptions, and Beliefs
Prompt 3 is the most conceptually demanding of the four. It uses the term judgment as a starting frame — the assignment defines it as making opinions about the value of someone or something — and then asks you to examine three specific constructs: your values, your assumptions, and your beliefs. These are not interchangeable terms, and the rubric awards higher marks when the response distinguishes between them clearly and applies all three to specific examples.
Distinguishing Values, Assumptions, and Beliefs
Values
Principles you treat as important and use to guide decisions. In nursing: dignity, equity, patient autonomy, honesty. A value shapes what you do — provide a specific example of a situation where a value of yours was visible in how you acted or what you chose.
Assumptions
Beliefs you treat as facts without necessarily examining them. In clinical settings: assumptions about what elderly patients want, what family involvement looks like, what a patient’s silence means. These often operate unconsciously — name one assumption you carry and where you think it came from.
Beliefs
Convictions about how things work — about health, illness, patient behavior, or professional roles. Unlike values, beliefs are more factual in tone (“I believe patients recover faster when they feel heard”). Connect your belief to how it shapes your clinical behavior.
The assignment instruction is to address all three and provide specific examples for each. A response that blends all three together without distinguishing them — writing three paragraphs that all sound like values statements — misses the point of the prompt and scores lower on the Reflection criterion because it suggests the student has not examined their own frame of reference carefully.
How Values, Assumptions, and Beliefs Affect Your Relationships with Residents and Families
The second sub-question in Prompt 3 asks you to apply what you identified above to the specific clinical context of working with residents and their families. This is where the reflection should generate new insight — not just a description of your values, but an analysis of how they create patterns in your interactions. Consider: does one of your assumptions lead you to give less information to residents who seem confused? Does a value around self-sufficiency make it harder to ask senior staff for help? Does a belief about family roles affect how you respond when families disagree with the care plan? The more specific and honest this analysis is, the higher the Reflection score.
[Descriptive — scores lower] I value treating all patients with dignity and respect. I believe everyone deserves good care. I try not to make assumptions about patients based on how they look.
[Reflective — scores higher] One assumption I carry into clinical is that elderly residents who do not speak up during care interactions are satisfied and comfortable. I realized this week that assumption has been shaped by watching adults in my family defer to medical professionals without question. In practice, it means I may not be prompting residents to share concerns that they would share if I asked directly. This conflicts with my stated value of patient autonomy — which requires actively creating conditions for patients to exercise that autonomy, not just assuming they will.
The second version names a specific assumption, traces its origin, connects it to a behavior, and identifies a tension with a stated value. That is what the rubric’s Level 5 description means by “creates or discovers ideas that are new and enhance professional growth.”
Prompt 4: Geriatric Literature, Summary, Analysis, and APA Citation
Prompt 4 shifts from personal reflection to evidence engagement. You must locate one peer-reviewed journal article published within the past five years that addresses a healthcare need of the geriatric population, summarize it, analyze the nurse’s role in addressing the issue it covers, and provide an APA in-text citation and a reference list entry. This is the Spirit of Inquiry component of the assignment.
Finding the Article
The assignment specifies locating the article through your NTC library site. Using a general Google search and citing an article you cannot verify as peer-reviewed is a risk — if the article is not peer-reviewed or is outside the five-year window, the entire Prompt 4 response is built on an invalid source. Access your library’s database portal (commonly PubMed, CINAHL, or your institution’s licensed academic databases) and filter by: peer-reviewed, publication date within the last five years, and topic relating to geriatric or older adult healthcare.
Search Terms That Produce Usable Geriatric Articles
The assignment suggests topics including health management, polypharmacy, safety, and caregiver role strain. Search terms that yield peer-reviewed results in nursing and healthcare databases:
- Polypharmacy in older adults — a well-researched and highly relevant area; many current articles discuss medication management, adverse drug events, and nursing assessment
- Fall prevention elderly — one of the highest-volume areas of geriatric nursing research; connects directly to safety and nursing interventions
- Caregiver burden dementia — addresses caregiver role strain with a large body of recent literature
- Delirium older adults hospital — evidence-based prevention and nursing management is well-documented
- Social isolation older adults — growing post-pandemic literature on mental health impacts in elderly populations
- Pressure injury prevention long-term care — directly relevant to LTC and skilled nursing settings
Choose an article whose topic you can connect to your clinical setting and whose conclusions you can analyze in terms of nursing practice. Choosing a highly technical article on pharmacogenomics or surgical outcomes will make the nursing role analysis harder to write.
Writing the Summary
The summary should briefly cover the article’s purpose, key findings, and conclusion — in your own words. The assignment uses the word “briefly,” which signals this section should not take up half your word count. Aim for 150–200 words: one to two sentences on what the study examined, two to three sentences on the key findings, one sentence on the conclusion. Do not quote extensively from the article — summarize it. Use an in-text citation at the end of your summary.
Analyzing the Nurse’s Role
The analysis question asks specifically: what is the role of the nurse in addressing this issue? This is not a continuation of the summary — it is your own professional analysis. Based on what the article found, what should a nurse do differently, more consistently, or in a more evidence-informed way? Connect the article’s findings to nursing actions: assessment, patient education, advocacy, care coordination, documentation, or referral. This section should demonstrate that you can apply evidence to practice — which is the Spirit of Inquiry objective the prompt is assessing.
What a Complete Prompt 4 Response Contains
A summary of the article (purpose, key findings, conclusion) in your own words with an in-text citation. A separate analysis paragraph discussing the nurse’s role in addressing the issue raised by the article — connected to specific nursing actions, not just general statements. A correctly formatted APA reference list entry at the end of the journal entry. Both the in-text citation and the reference list entry are required — one without the other is an incomplete citation.
Writing Reflectively vs. Descriptively
The Reflection criterion is worth half the total mark. The rubric describes Level 5 Reflection as demonstrating “insight and ability to connect personal experience with theory” on all questions, drawing on “self-knowledge, self-awareness and past experience to gain insight and create or discover ideas that are new and enhance professional growth.” That language tells you exactly what the grader is looking for. The question to ask yourself after writing each section is: does this sentence produce a new understanding, or does it just report what happened or what I already believe?
Reflection has a specific structure that distinguishes it from description. It typically moves through: what happened or what I notice about myself → why it matters or where it came from → what it means for how I practice → what I will do differently as a result. Not every entry needs to follow this structure mechanically, but when your writing stalls into description, asking “so what does this mean for my nursing practice?” usually moves it into reflection.
Descriptive (Scores at Level 2)
“During clinical I observed how the nurses communicated with residents. They spoke kindly and introduced themselves. I think this is important for patient care.”
Reflective (Scores at Level 4–5)
“Watching a nurse take an extra thirty seconds to make eye contact and address the resident by name before beginning any procedure made me realize I have been focusing on task completion at the expense of connection — and that connection is not separate from care quality, it is part of it.”
Generic Strength Statement
“One of my strengths is that I am empathetic. I care about people and want to help them. This is why I chose nursing.”
Evidenced Strength Statement
“Caring for my grandmother during her final year at home taught me to recognize discomfort in people who cannot or will not ask for help. I noticed that same pattern in a resident this week who kept saying ‘I’m fine’ while her body language said otherwise — I slowed down and asked a different question, and she disclosed that she had not eaten since morning.”
Managing the 1,500–2,000 Word Window
The word count constraint is enforced by the rubric — both ends carry penalties. Going below 1,500 words signals that you have not addressed the prompts thoroughly, which drops your Completeness score to Level 4 or below even if your reflection quality is high. Exceeding 2,000 words is treated the same way. This is a narrow window across four prompts and eight or more sub-questions.
| Prompt | Sub-Questions | Suggested Word Allocation |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt 1 | 4 sub-questions: feelings, contributing experiences, strengths, one goal | 380–430 words — the most sub-questions, so give it proportionally more space |
| Prompt 2 | 4 sub-questions: communication style, how you try to come across, how perceived, two strategies | 380–430 words — each sub-question requires specificity, particularly the two strategies |
| Prompt 3 | 2 sub-questions: values/assumptions/beliefs with examples, how they affect relationships | 330–380 words — must address all three constructs and provide specific examples |
| Prompt 4 | Summary, analysis, APA citation | 380–430 words — summary 150–200 words, analysis 150–200 words, reference below word count |
Most academic assignments exclude reference lists from the word count. The ADNG1200 instructions do not specify, but standard practice in nursing education is to exclude the reference list entry from the body word count. To be safe, write your reference entry on a separate page at the end (clearly labeled “References”) and treat it as excluded. Your word count for the journal body itself — all four prompts — should fall between 1,500 and 2,000 words. If your faculty member has stated a different convention, follow their guidance.
APA In-Text Citations and Reference List Format
Prompt 4 requires both an in-text citation and a reference list entry in APA format. The assignment provides examples of both, which serve as your formatting template. The most common errors in APA citations at this level are: wrong order of elements in the reference entry, missing italics on journal name and volume, incorrect DOI format, and using a URL instead of a DOI where a DOI is available.
In-Text Citation Format
The assignment’s example format is: A recent study found that geriatric healthcare needs are growing (Smith, 2018). This is author–year citation style — author’s last name, comma, year, in parentheses, at the end of the sentence before the period. If you are paraphrasing the entire article in your summary paragraph, place one in-text citation at the end of the paragraph. If you reference a specific finding, cite at the end of that sentence.
Last, F. M. (Year Published). Article title. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. Page(s). doi:#
Applied example:
Rodrigues, M. A., & Neto, M. F. (2022). Polypharmacy in older adults: Nursing assessment and management strategies. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 48(3), 15–22. https://doi.org/10.3928/00989134-20220201-03
Note: Journal name and volume number are italicized. Article title is not italicized and only the first word is capitalized (plus proper nouns). The DOI is formatted as a URL starting with https://doi.org/. If no DOI exists, include the journal’s homepage URL.
Capitalizing every word in the article title (APA capitalizes only the first word and proper nouns). Forgetting to italicize the journal name and volume number. Using “(n.d.)” for the date when the article clearly has a publication year. Writing “Retrieved from” before a DOI (current APA 7th edition uses the full DOI URL without “Retrieved from”). Listing the database name (e.g., “Retrieved from CINAHL”) instead of the DOI. If the article has a DOI, use it — it takes precedence over any URL.
Where Most Journals Lose Marks
Writing Thoughts Instead of Feelings in Prompt 1
“I feel like this clinical placement will help me grow as a nurse.” That is a thought. The prompt explicitly asks for feelings and instructs you to complete “I feel…” with an emotional state. Graders are trained to notice this distinction.
Instead
Complete the sentence with an actual emotion: nervous, excited, apprehensive, overwhelmed, eager. Then explain the feeling in a second sentence before moving to its contributing causes. One specific scenario that triggers the feeling makes it more credible than a general statement.
Treating All Three Constructs in Prompt 3 as Identical
Writing three paragraphs that all describe values — without distinguishing between a value (principle guiding decisions), an assumption (unexamined belief treated as fact), and a belief (conviction about how things work). The rubric rewards responses that show the student can analyze their own frame of reference at this level of granularity.
Instead
Address each construct separately with its own header or paragraph and a distinct example for each. The example for “assumption” should describe something you take for granted that you may not have consciously chosen — not a deliberate value or a stated belief.
Prompt 4 Summary That Just Quotes the Abstract
Copying or closely paraphrasing the article’s abstract as your summary. An abstract is already a summary — reproducing it demonstrates nothing except that you read the first section. It also risks plagiarism if the paraphrase is too close to the original wording.
Instead
Read the full article (or at minimum the introduction, findings, and conclusion sections) and write the summary from those three sections in your own words. The summary should tell the grader what the study examined, what it found, and what the authors concluded — in language that shows you processed the content, not copied it.
Two Strategies in Prompt 2 That Are Not Strategies
“I will try to be a better listener” and “I will communicate more clearly.” These are intentions, not strategies. A strategy describes a specific behavior, in a specific context, that addresses a specific gap you identified. Without that specificity, the response scores at the lower end of the Reflection criterion.
Instead
Write each strategy with: (1) the specific behavior — what exactly will you do differently; (2) the context — when or with whom you will apply it; (3) the connection — which gap from your self-assessment this addresses. “When I feel the urge to fill a silence with information, I will wait five seconds before speaking, particularly when a resident seems to be processing something” is a strategy.
Missing the Nurse’s Role Analysis in Prompt 4
Writing a summary of the article and then ending the prompt without addressing the analysis question. The assignment separates “briefly summarize” and “Analysis: what is the role of the nurse…” into two distinct requirements — both must be answered. A response that only summarizes scores at Level 3 Completeness at best.
Instead
After the summary, start a new paragraph explicitly labeled “Analysis” or introduced with a clear transition (“Based on these findings, the nursing role involves…”). Identify at least two specific nursing actions that the article’s findings support — assessment, patient education, interdisciplinary communication, referral, or advocacy.
Entry That Recites Clinical Events
The rubric explicitly identifies “recitation of significant experiences in clinical” as a Level 1 Completeness response — the lowest score. An entry structured as “First we did orientation, then I watched a nurse do wound care, then I helped with morning care” is a log, not a reflective journal. It scores at Level 1 regardless of length.
Instead
Use clinical experiences as examples that support reflection, not as the primary content. The event is context; the reflection is the substance. “When I assisted with morning care, I noticed I was uncomfortable asking the resident for consent at each step — which made me realize how deeply ingrained my assumption is that efficiency and thoroughness are in tension” uses the clinical event as evidence for a reflection, not as a report.
Frequently Asked Questions
How the Four Prompts Work Together
The strongest submissions treat the four prompts as a connected whole rather than four separate tasks. Prompt 1 establishes your emotional starting point and identifies your strengths and a growth goal. Prompt 2 examines a specific dimension of professional behavior — communication — through the lens of self and others. Prompt 3 deepens that examination by going beneath behavior to the values, assumptions, and beliefs that drive it. Prompt 4 grounds all of that personal reflection in professional evidence by connecting your developing professional identity to current research on the patient population you are serving.
When all four prompts are written with that progression in mind — and when the specific examples, goals, and strategies in each prompt reinforce each other rather than contradicting or repeating — the entry reads as a coherent piece of professional reflection. That coherence is what Level 5 on the Reflection criterion looks like in practice: not just four individually adequate answers, but a response that demonstrates genuine engagement with your own development as a beginning clinical nurse.
For direct support with this assignment — whether you need help developing the depth of your reflective writing, locating and formatting an appropriate geriatric article, or reviewing a draft for rubric alignment and APA accuracy — our nursing assignment writing team works specifically with clinical coursework and reflective journal assignments at the associate and undergraduate level.
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