Use of Reflection in Higher Nursing Education

38 Summary The aims of the research presented in this thesis were twofold: (a) to evaluate how master's students in intensive care nursing reflect theoretical and practical teaching and (b) to identify whether selected factors (a form of study, focus of reflection and time) are related to the level of reflective skills of the students. The research included 39 full-time and part- time students of the master's program Intensive Care at the Masaryk University Faculty of Medicine. The data source was 22 portfolios of full-time students and 17 portfolios of part- time students gathered during four subsequent semesters (from the beginning to completion of the study). A total of 3460 reflective journal records were analyzed. The data were first analyzed quantitatively using the REFLECT rubric analytical tool. Subsequently, a thematic qualitative content analysis of reflections was performed. Quantitative data analysis revealed two key research findings: (a) the students scored relatively low in all assessed reflective skills dimensions, (b) there are differences in reflective skills between full-time and part-time students. Full-time students achieved a higher level of reflective skills than part-time students, and full-time students reflected more in the number of diary entries (compared to part-time students)...