Johns Model of Reflection: the Basics and Example

Reflection is more than thinking back on an experience; it is about learning from it in a structured and meaningful way.  In professional practices such as healthcare, reflection plays a crucial role in enhancing the quality of care. Johns Model of Reflection offers a guided framework to help practitioners critically examine work and improve future actions, helping them explore experiences deeply while linking theory, ethics, and practice. In this blog, we are going to explore Johns Model of Structured Reflection in detail, understanding its framework, applications, importance, and how online assignment help can assist in applying it in your projects.

What is the Johns’ Model for Structured Reflection

Originally developed for use in nursing, this reflective model was written by Christopher Johns in 1994 and has been gradually expanded to other fields as well. The framework uses five main questions to enable you to break down your experience and reflect on the process and outcomes.

Johns emphasised that on reflection, you need to make sure that you ‘look inwards’, and ‘look outwards’. Looking inwards means considering your own thoughts, feelings, and overall emotions, whereas looking outward means considering the actual situation or incident, factors influencing it and consequent actions. The questions provided in each phase of the model lead you to complete this cycle of thought.

Johns also suggested that involving someone else, like a supervisor or mentor, to support you in your reflection will make it more powerful.

The Framework: Johns’ Reflective Cycle

The five questions in the model are as follows:

1. Description of the experience: This involves describing the experience, the actions, and the overall situation.  What were the significant factors that preceded the event?

2. Reflection: This is the phase where you start to reflect within. What were you trying to achieve, and what were the consequences of your actions?  How did you and others feel when the event happened?

3. Influencing factors: What things led to the decisions that you made? What was the internal or external knowledge that affected your decision-making?  

4. Contextual Factors: Consider if you could have dealt with the situation better. What other choices did you have, and what were their consequences  

5. Learning: What will change because of this experience, and how did you feel about the experience? How has this experience changed your way of knowing? How do you feel about this experience now, and what effective actions have you taken to support yourself and others as a result of this experience?

Applications of Johns’ Model of Structured Reflection

Though this was crafted for the practice of reflection in nursing and healthcare, it has been accepted and used in many other fields. Here are some of its major applications:

1. Nursing and Healthcare Practice: The Johns’ Model of reflection is widely utilised in nursing and healthcare to assist practitioners in critically evaluating clinical experiences. It encourages reflection on the actions, emotions, and ethics involved, and patients' outcomes to continuously improve care quality, clinical judgment, and professional accountability.

2. Professional Development and Continuing Practice: By reflecting on actual workplace experiences, professionals can easily identify strengths, recognise and work on gaps in knowledge or skills, and plan meaningful improvements for future practice.

3. Education and Training: Reflective learning in academic settings guides learners to link theory and practice. Useful in reflective essays, learning journals, and placement reflections, the model provides structured guidance that deepens critical thinking.

4. Ethical Decision-making: The model places great emphasis on ethical awareness. Practitioners use it to explore moral dilemmas, consider professional values, and evaluate how their actions align with ethical codes and patient-centred care principles.

5. Leadership and Management: Johns’s Reflective Model has been used by healthcare leaders and managers to reflect upon decision-making, communication, and team interactions with a view to enhancing leadership, effectiveness, self-awareness, and improving organisational practice.

Given its many applications across contexts, it is important to evaluate how effective the model is in practice by examining its strengths and limitations. Locus Assignments can help you with that!

Strengths and Limitations of Johns’ Model for Structured Reflection

It has many strong points:

1. A highly structured and guided framework that uses cue questions, helping practitioners reflect deeply, and making it especially useful for students and beginners.

2. Encourages ethical awareness through reflection on values, beliefs, and ethical considerations, supporting professional accountability.

3. Promotes deep critical reflection by going beyond surface description and exploring emotions, assumptions, and decision-making.

4. Has a strong link between theory and practice, which helps professionals integrate theoretical knowledge with real-life experiences.

Its Limitations Include:

1. Complex or time-consuming because of detailed cue questions that may feel overwhelming, especially for beginners.

2. Requires high levels of self-honesty and openness for effective reflection, which may not always be comfortable.

3. Less flexible than other models due to a fixed, structured format, restricting more spontaneous or creative reflections.

4. It is only suited for in-depth analysis, and not for quick reflections and brief reflective tasks.

Despite its limitations, this is a widely studied and applied model, crucial for reflective practices. As nursing and healthcare students, it is important to be aware of how to apply it in assignments. And for guidance on the same, you can seek the assistance of an assignment helper UK.

How Locus Assignments Can Guide You

Locus Assignments has been the trusted partner of medical and nursing students in the UK for years. Whether you want to learn more about reflective models or are struggling to apply Johns’ reflective cycle in your assignments, you can seek the online assignment help service of Locus Assignment to gain instant expert guidance and excel in your work. In addition, we also provide essay writing services, dissertation help, coursework help and case study analysis to provide students with comprehensive and advanced academic services.

Conclusion

There are many reflective models for nursing students to go through and learn to apply in real practice. And just the existence of multiple models, covering various aspects and ways of reflection, highlights the importance of reflection in healthcare. Johns’ Model of Reflection provides a holistic and structured framework to help practitioners critically examine work and improve future actions, providing clear prompts that turn experiences into learning. So dive into professional practices of reflection with assignment help from Locus Assignments today!

FAQs

What are the 5 steps of Johns' model of reflection?

The five main steps include, Description of the experience, Reflection on thoughts and feelings, Evaluation of actions taken, Consideration of ethical influences, and Learning and planning for future practice.

Who created Johns' model of reflection?

Johns’ Model of Reflection was developed by Christopher Johns, a nursing scholar who designed the model to support structured and ethical reflective practice in healthcare.

What are the four models of reflection?

Four commonly used reflective models in education and healthcare are Johns’ Model of Reflection, Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle, Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle, and Rolfe et al.’s Reflective Model.

Why is Johns’ Model of Reflection widely used in healthcare? 

Johns’ Model is widely used in healthcare because it encourages deep, structured reflection, combines ethical considerations, and helps practitioners integrate theory and practice, improving professional judgement and patient care.

About the Author

Dr. Hannah Collins is a UK-based healthcare academic with experience in nursing studies and patient-centred practice. With postgraduate training in health and social care, she works with Locus Assignments to support students in analysing care models, applying theory to practice, and meeting UK academic standards in healthcare-related assignments