DNP 805 Week 8: reflective journal guide
Four things have to appear and the last one is the one people lose marks on: how you met the competencies aligned to this course, stated so a reader can check it.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 15, 2026
A variable combination means you choose, then justify
A variable combination of the following is permission to select, not an instruction to cover everything. Nine themes are offered and a journal that touches all of them will say nothing about any. Choose two or three that this course genuinely gave you something to say about — in an informatics course that is usually the role of technology in improving outcomes, health care delivery and clinical systems, and either ethical considerations or health disparities, since both surface immediately once you look at who a technology excludes. Then write about them through your own practice rather than in general. A reflective journal that could have been written by any learner in the cohort has failed at the first requirement, which is what you discovered about your professional practice specifically. Two or three themes, treated properly, will always read better than nine mentioned in passing. Depth beats coverage here, reliably.
The four closing demands are a checklist and it pays to treat them as one. Discoveries about your practice should be things you did not know in week one. Strengths and weaknesses need to include at least one real weakness — the journal is not assessed on your being impressive, and a learner who reports only strengths reads as someone who did not look. Additional resources and abilities means what was missing that would have changed the outcome, whether that is analytics support, protected time, authority you do not have, or a skill you now intend to acquire. And the competencies question wants specifics: name the course competency and say what you did that met it. Finally, note the submission trap — this goes to both the classroom and Typhon, and missing one can produce a grade of Incomplete for the whole course, which is a disproportionate penalty for an administrative slip.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Select a small number of themes and treat them in depth.
- 02Report discoveries specific to your own practice setting.
- 03Identify a genuine weakness and the resources that would address it.
- 04Map reflection explicitly onto named course competencies.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01Reflection on two or three chosen themes, in depth.
- 02What you discovered about your professional practice.
- 03Strengths and weaknesses that surfaced, including at least one real weakness.
- 04Additional resources and abilities that would influence outcomes.
- 05An explicit statement of how you met each course competency.
- 06Submission to both the course room and Typhon.
Themes, discoveries, gaps, then competencies
The themes you chose
Name the two or three themes and say why this course made them live for you.
What you discovered
Set out what you now understand about your own practice that you did not before.
Strengths, weaknesses and gaps
Report both honestly and name the resources or abilities that were missing.
Competencies met
Map each course competency to something you actually did.
Mapping your reflection to the course competencies
Recommended databases
- Your course competency statements
- AACN Essentials
- CINAHL
- Your own Typhon case logs
Search sequence
- 1.Read the course competencies before writing, since they structure the final section.
- 2.Look back at your own case logs for concrete evidence to attach to each competency.
- 3.Identify the one assignment that changed your practice thinking most.
- 4.Check the Typhon submission requirement for this course section before the deadline.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
AACN Essentials
American Association of Colleges of Nursing · 2024
The competency framework the course competencies derive from, which is what makes the mapping checkable.
- 02
Nursing Professional Development Evidence-Based Practice
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
Frames reflective practice as professional development rather than as an assignment genre.
- 03
Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice
American Nurses Association · 2021
The scope-and-standards account of accountability, useful when writing about leadership and inquiry in practice.
- 04
QSEN: Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Associated With Evidence-Based Practice (Table 9.4)
Nursing Management and Professional Concepts, Chippewa Valley Technical College (NCBI Bookshelf) · 2022
Knowledge, skills and attitudes stated separately, a ready structure for the strengths and weaknesses section.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Touching all nine themes and developing none.
- Writing a reflection any learner in the cohort could have written.
- Reporting strengths only, which reads as not having looked.
- Leaving the competency mapping implicit.
- Submitting to one system and risking a grade of Incomplete.
Submission checklist
- Have you chosen a small number of themes deliberately?
- Is there at least one weakness stated plainly?
- Does each competency have something concrete attached to it?
- Could a reader tell this was your practice and not someone else's?
- Has it gone to both the classroom and Typhon?
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.