Understand the difference between Gibbs' Reflective Cycle and Driscoll's What? So What? Now What? framework β and learn how each can help you move beyond description towards meaningful reflection on nursing practice.
More structured, with six stages that guide you through an experience in detail.
Simpler and more concise, built around three questions: What? So What? Now What?
A strong nursing reflection should help you examine an experience, consider why it mattered, identify what you learned and decide how that learning may influence your future practice.
Reflective models give that thinking a structure. They do not do the reflection for you. Instead, they provide prompts that help you move from simply recounting an event towards analysing your learning and considering what you might do differently next time.
Always check your university module guidance, assessment brief and marking criteria. Some assignments specify a particular reflective model, while others allow you to choose.
Both frameworks encourage you to think about experience, meaning and future action. The main difference is the amount of structure they provide.
Gibbs breaks reflection into six distinct stages, making it useful when you need a clear framework to work through an experience systematically.
Driscoll organises reflection around three broad questions. It offers less scaffolding than Gibbs, but can help you produce a focused reflection without repeating yourself.
Gibbs' model is particularly useful when you want a clear sequence of questions to help organise your thinking.
The important point is not to give every stage exactly the same amount of writing. In many nursing assignments, the deeper learning happens in the evaluation, analysis and action-planning stages.
What happened? Give enough context for the reader to understand the situation without turning the reflection into a long story.
What were you thinking and feeling at the time? How might those responses have influenced what you did?
What went well? What did not go well? Which parts of the experience were effective or ineffective?
Why did events unfold as they did? Connect the experience to nursing knowledge, communication, professional values, evidence or relevant theory.
What have you learned? What could you have done differently or what would you now understand more clearly?
If a similar situation happened again, what would you do? Identify specific development, learning or changes in practice.
Driscoll's framework can feel simpler because several reflective processes are grouped together under three broad headings.
Establish what happened and identify the significant part of the experience.
Examine why the experience matters and what you learned from it.
Turn reflection into future action and professional development.
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: Briefly explain that you noticed increased breathlessness and escalated your concern to your supervising nurse.
Feelings: Consider your uncertainty and concern about whether you were interpreting the situation correctly.
Evaluation: Identify what went well, such as recognising a change and seeking support, and what was difficult, such as lacking confidence.
Analysis: Explore why recognising deterioration, communication and escalation matter. Link your discussion to relevant learning or evidence required by your assignment.
Conclusion: Identify what the experience taught you about observation, communication and asking for help.
Action Plan: Decide what you will revise, practise or discuss with your supervisor before a similar situation occurs again.
What? Explain that you noticed increased breathlessness and raised your concern with your supervising nurse.
So What? Examine why the change mattered, how you responded, what you understood about deterioration and why escalation was important. Consider your uncertainty and what you learned.
Now What? Explain how you will strengthen your knowledge, become more confident recognising changes in a patient's condition and use appropriate communication or escalation processes in future.
| Question | Gibbs | Driscoll |
|---|---|---|
| Number of stages | Six | Three |
| Level of structure | Highly structured | Broad and flexible |
| Feelings explicitly prompted | Yes | Can be included within So What? |
| Evaluation and analysis | Separated into stages | Usually combined within So What? |
| Future action | Action Plan | Now What? |
| Helpful for new reflective writers | Often very helpful | Can require more independent thinking |
A reflective framework gives you headings or questions. The quality of the reflection still depends on what you do underneath them.
Give enough context to understand the experience, then move into evaluation, interpretation and learning.
Do not simply state what happened. Explore why events, decisions, communication or responses were significant.
Where your assessment requires it, connect the experience to appropriate evidence, professional guidance, theory or learning.
βI will improve next timeβ is too vague. Identify what you will learn, practise, discuss or change.
Reflective writing becomes stronger when the framework supports your thinking rather than becoming a checklist that controls it.
Too much description leaves too little room for analysis and learning.
The headings should organise your thinking, not produce six disconnected mini-answers.
If your assignment expects academic evidence, use appropriate sources to support your analysis.
Reflection should help identify what you will carry forward into future learning or practice.
There is no universal rule that every nursing student should use Gibbs or that Driscoll is always better for shorter reflections. Your assessment requirements come first.
When reflecting on placement or clinical experiences, follow your university guidance and relevant professional requirements around confidentiality, privacy and anonymisation. Avoid including information that could unnecessarily identify patients, relatives, colleagues or organisations.
Explore more NurseNet support for student nurses, including academic writing, placement learning, nursing numeracy and drug calculations.
Get started today before this once in a lifetime opportunity expires.
