Background: Knowledge and professional competence depend on deeper understanding of issues to develop informed judgment and skill. Purpose This descriptive study was designed to evaluate the knowledge and application of reflective practice among nurses in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar Nigeria. Methods: The theory of Human Caring, the Model of Structured Reflection, two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. Two hundred and thirty eight (238) professional nurses were used as study sample. Data were obtained using self-administered questionnaires; collated data were analyzed using SPSS version 18.0 for inferential and non inferential statistics. Hypothesis was tested for significance at 0.05 level using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Results: Findings revealed that majority of nurses have knowledge of reflective practice based on task (41.3%) and time (32.1%) awareness 64.2% engaged in reflective practice employed. use discussion approach only. The use of reflective journals was found to be very poor among the nurses. Conclusions: The study concludes that knowledge of reflective practice provides a basic strategy for meaningful practice that facilitates professional development and promotes quality patient care based on best practice guiding principle. It was recommended that nurses be encouraged to keep reflective dairy to provide insight into clinical issues for better understanding that results in meaningful practice.
Keywords: Application, Knowledge, Nurses, Reflective, meaningful practice
