Introduction:

Nowadays, the work profiles of Nursing graduates from several universities are aligned with international and national references in the area, which state that graduates must develop the generic competence of critical and reflective thinking. There are several pedagogical strategies in higher education that allow strengthening and teaching of reflective and critical thinking, such as resolution of cases, a portfolio, or a reflective diary. The latter is characterized by being a formative evaluation instrument that has students as the axis of their own formative process.

Objective:

To determine the perception that Nursing students have about a reflective diary for the development of critical-reflective thinking.

Methods:

Qualitative and descriptive study with a hermeneutical approach, derived from a pedagogical experience. The unit of analysis were fourth-year Nursing majors who were studying the Maternal-Child and Adolescent Nursing Program (n=24) and who voluntarily agreed to participate in this study. The methods used for producing information were the reflective diary and the semistructured interview. Qualitative data was analyzed through content analysis.

Results:

A total of six categories emerged. Of these, four focused on the positive aspects of the learning process: articulation between nursing theories and praxis, reflective/critical thinking, research in practice, and care pause. The other two categories gave an account of the difficulties and barriers perceived by the participants at the time of writing the diary: techniques and procedures and time.

Conclusions:

The usage of the reflective diary as a pedagogical instrument was positively assessed by the students, and allowed to evidence aspects associated with human care from a critical and reflective perspective. The development of this competence was relevant for practice, since it allowed to analyze and reflect on the task and knowing how to be, and improved the continuous transformation of care.

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