Structured
Six clear stages help you organise your thinking.
REFLECTIVE WRITING FOR NURSING STUDENTS
Gibbs Reflective Cycle for Nursing Students
Learn how to use Gibbs' Reflective Cycle to structure nursing reflection, understand each of the six stages and see how the model can be applied to a realistic placement experience.
Six-stage framework · Nursing example · Practical student guidance
UNDERSTANDING THE MODEL
What is Gibbs' Reflective Cycle?
Gibbs' Reflective Cycle is a six-stage framework that can help you work through an experience systematically. It encourages you to describe what happened, consider your response, evaluate the experience, analyse why events unfolded as they did, identify what you learned and decide what you would do next.
For nursing students, the model can provide useful scaffolding when you are learning how to move beyond description and develop a more analytical reflection.
Reflective
The model asks you to examine meaning, not just events.
Developmental
It ends by turning learning into future action.
BEFORE YOU USE GIBBS
Check whether your university requires a specific model.
Some assignments specify Gibbs' Reflective Cycle, while others allow you to choose your own reflective framework. Always follow your module guidance, assessment brief and marking criteria first.
If Gibbs is required, you may be expected to use the six stages explicitly. If it is optional, you can use the framework more flexibly to organise your thinking.
CHECK YOUR BRIEF FOR
- Required reflective model
- Word count
- Learning outcomes
- Academic evidence requirements
- Referencing style
- Confidentiality guidance
THE SIX STAGES
How to use Gibbs' Reflective Cycle step by step.
Each stage has a different purpose. The strongest reflections do not give every stage the same amount of space. Description may be brief, while analysis and future action often need more depth.
DESCRIPTION
What happened?
Give enough context for the reader to understand the situation, your role and the key event. Avoid turning this stage into a long chronological account of the whole shift.
Useful prompts:
What happened? Who was involved? What was your role? What was the key issue?
FEELINGS
What were you thinking and feeling?
Consider your thoughts and emotional response. The purpose is not simply to list feelings, but to explore whether they influenced your actions, confidence or interpretation of the situation.
Useful prompts:
What were you thinking? What were you feeling? Did this affect what you did?
EVALUATION
What went well and what did not?
Identify the positive and less effective aspects of the experience. Be specific about what contributed to each outcome instead of simply judging the experience as good or bad.
Useful prompts:
What worked? What was difficult? What could have been better?
ANALYSIS
Why did the situation unfold as it did?
This is often the most important stage for academic reflection. Explore the reasons behind the experience and connect your thinking to relevant nursing knowledge, theory, evidence or professional guidance where your assignment requires it.
Useful prompts:
Why did this happen? What influenced the outcome? What knowledge helps explain it?
CONCLUSION
What have you learned?
Pull together the most important learning from the reflection. Consider what you understand now, what you might have done differently and what the experience has shown you about your development.
Useful prompts:
What have you learned? What would you change? What do you understand more clearly?
ACTION PLAN
What will you do next time?
Turn your learning into a specific future action. Decide what you will practise, revise, discuss, seek feedback on or approach differently in a similar situation.
Useful prompts:
What will you do differently? What will you practise? What learning do you need?
AVOID THE BIGGEST MISTAKE
Do not give all six stages the same amount of writing.
Gibbs gives you six headings, but that does not mean each section needs an equal number of words.
KEEP IT BRIEF
Description
Give enough context to make the reflection understandable, then move on.
EXPLORE IT
Feelings & Evaluation
Consider your response and what was effective or less effective.
GO DEEPER
Analysis
Explore why events unfolded as they did and connect the experience to relevant knowledge.
MAKE IT USEFUL
Conclusion & Action
Identify genuine learning and turn it into specific future development.
WORKED NURSING EXAMPLE
Applying Gibbs to a student-nurse placement experience.
Imagine you are a student nurse who notices that a patient appears more breathless than earlier in the shift. You are unsure whether the change is significant, but you raise your concern with your supervising registered nurse.
Description
During the shift I noticed that the patient appeared more breathless than when I had seen them earlier. I was unsure whether the change was clinically significant, so I informed my supervising registered nurse.
Feelings
I felt uncertain because I did not know whether I was interpreting the patient's condition correctly. I also worried that I might be overreacting.
Evaluation
A positive aspect was that I communicated my concern rather than ignoring it. However, my uncertainty made me hesitate before speaking.
Analysis
The experience showed me that uncertainty can affect confidence, particularly when I am still developing clinical knowledge. It also helped me recognise the importance of communicating changes in a patient's condition so that a more experienced practitioner can assess the situation.
Conclusion
I learned that I do not need to be certain of the cause of a change before raising a concern. My role as a student includes noticing, communicating and seeking appropriate support.
Action Plan
I will strengthen my knowledge of recognising deterioration and practise communicating concerns clearly with supervisors so that I can respond more confidently in similar situations.
WRITING SUPPORT
Gibbs Reflective Cycle sentence starters.
Use these as prompts to develop your own reflection rather than as a fixed template.
DESCRIPTION
“The situation I am reflecting on involved…”
“My role during the experience was…”
FEELINGS
“At the time, I felt…”
“My uncertainty influenced my response because…”
EVALUATION
“One aspect that went well was…”
“A more difficult part of the experience was…”
ANALYSIS
“This was significant because…”
“One factor that may have influenced the situation was…”
CONCLUSION
“The experience helped me recognise that…”
“Looking back, I would…”
ACTION PLAN
“If a similar situation occurred again, I would…”
“To develop this further, I will…”
ACADEMIC REFLECTION
Where should references go in a Gibbs reflection?
If your assignment requires evidence, references are often most useful when they help you analyse the experience rather than simply decorate the writing.
Evidence may help you explore why something happened, connect the experience to nursing knowledge or professional guidance, and support your future learning.
THINK PURPOSEFULLY
Ask what the evidence adds.
- Does it help explain the experience?
- Does it support an important professional point?
- Does it deepen your analysis?
- Does it inform your future action?
CHOOSING A MODEL
Gibbs or Driscoll?
Gibbs gives you six stages and more detailed scaffolding. Driscoll organises reflection around three broad questions: What? So What? Now What?
Neither model automatically produces better reflection. The quality comes from how well you analyse the experience and identify meaningful learning.
WANT TO COMPARE THEM?
See Gibbs and Driscoll side by side.
Compare the structure of both models and see how the same nursing experience can be organised differently.
Compare Gibbs vs Driscoll →
COMMON MISTAKES
Five ways Gibbs reflections become superficial.
Too much description
The event becomes the focus instead of the learning.
Listing feelings
Emotions are named but not explored.
Weak analysis
The reflection says what happened but not why it mattered.
Vague conclusions
“I learned a lot” does not identify meaningful learning.
An action plan with no real action
“I will do better next time” is much weaker than identifying a specific behaviour, learning activity or skill to develop.
CONTINUE YOUR REFLECTIVE WRITING
More NurseNet reflective-writing support.
STEP-BY-STEP
How to Write a Nursing Reflection
Follow a practical eight-step process from choosing an experience to creating your final action plan.
Read the nursing reflection guide →
PRACTICAL EXAMPLES
Nursing Reflective Writing Examples
See how common student-nurse experiences can be turned into meaningful reflective learning.
See the reflective examples →
REFLECTIVE ACCOUNT
How to Write a Reflective Account
Explore structure, analysis, evidence, confidentiality and action planning in greater depth.
Read the reflective-account guide →
CONTINUE LEARNING WITH NURSENET
Practical support throughout your nursing degree.
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