How to write the action plan in a reflective account (the 'now what')

Most people write a decent reflective account and then run out of steam at the very end. They describe what happened, they say what they learned, and then they finish with something like "I will be more aware of this in future." That last line is the action plan, and a vague one undoes a lot of good work.

The action plan matters because it is the point where reflection turns into a change in your practice. Both the HCPC and the NMC are far more interested in what your learning led to than in the story itself. A clear, specific action is also the easiest thing to evidence later, whether at an HCPC audit or an NMC reflective discussion.

This article covers what the action plan is, why the regulators care about it, and how to write one that is specific enough to actually do.

Where the action plan sits in the common models

If you use the Gibbs reflective cycle, the action plan is the sixth and final stage. It asks what you would do if the situation arose again, and what you will change going forward.

If you use Rolfe and colleagues' model, the action plan is the "now what" question. What do you now need to do, learn, or change to improve things or to be ready next time?

Different models use different words, but they are pointing at the same thing: the bridge from insight to action. For a fuller comparison, see our guide on which reflective model to use.

Why the HCPC and NMC care about the action plan

This is not a stylistic preference. It is written into what both regulators ask for.

The HCPC standards of continuing professional development include two that speak directly to outcomes. A registrant must:

• seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery, and
• seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user.

Notice the direction of travel. The standards are not satisfied by attending a course or reading an article. They are satisfied by what changed in your practice as a result, and by the benefit that reached the person you care for. Your action plan is where you show that link.

The NMC is even more direct. The written reflective account form asks, in its own words:

How did you change or improve your practice as a result?

That field is the action plan by another name. If you leave it thin, you have left the heart of the account empty.

What a weak action plan looks like

Weak action plans tend to share a few features. They are general, they are passive, and there is no way to tell whether you ever did them. For example:

• "I will be more mindful of consent in future."
• "I will try to communicate better with families."
• "I will read up on the guideline."

None of these can be checked. In six months you could not honestly say whether you had done them, and neither could a confirmer or an auditor.

How to write an action plan you can actually do

A simple way to strengthen the action plan is to make it SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. You do not have to label the parts, and you should not force clinical judgement into a rigid template, but the discipline helps.

Ask yourself four questions:

1. What exactly will I do? Name the concrete action, not the general intention.
2. How will I know I have done it? Give yourself something observable.
3. By when? A date or a timeframe turns a wish into a plan.
4. What support or resource do I need? Study leave, a supervisor, a piece of equipment, a policy.

Compare the weak versions above with their stronger counterparts:

Weak: "I will read up on the guideline." Stronger: "I will read the current sepsis recognition guideline before my next block of shifts, and I will ask my practice educator to talk through the screening tool with me at our supervision session this month."

The second version names the document, sets a deadline, and identifies who will help. It is something a person could genuinely follow up on.

A worked example

Here is a short action plan written for the end of a reflective account. The clinical detail is deliberately anonymised, with roles used instead of names.

What I learned: I realised that I had assumed a patient understood the plan because they nodded, when in fact they had not taken it in. My checking of understanding was too quick. What I will change: At my next set of shifts I will use a teach-back approach for any discharge advice, asking the patient to tell me the plan back in their own words before I finish. I will do this for the whole block and note how it goes in my reflective journal. If I find it difficult under time pressure, I will raise it with my supervisor at our next monthly meeting to problem-solve it, rather than dropping it.

That is specific, it is dated, it is checkable, and it makes clear how the change benefits the person being cared for. It would map cleanly onto the NMC form field about how you changed or improved your practice, and onto the HCPC standards about improving quality and benefiting the service user.

Close the loop next time

The best action plans create your next reflection. When you revisit the change you promised, you have a ready-made topic: did it work, what got in the way, what will you adjust? That is reflective practice functioning as it is meant to, as a cycle rather than a one-off.

A few practical habits help:

• Keep your action plans somewhere you will actually see them again, such as a running reflective journal.
• Keep them small. One realistic change you complete beats three ambitious ones you abandon.
• Never name a patient, service user or colleague in the plan. Describe the change, not the individuals.

A note on wellbeing

If your reflection is about a difficult or distressing event, keep the action plan focused on practice, not on blame. Reflection should help you learn and move forward, not pull you back into the moment. If an event is still weighing on you, that is worth taking seriously. Your occupational health service and your union are there for exactly this, and the Samaritans are available free at any time on 116 123.

How Reflectory helps

If you find the action plan the hardest part to write, that is normal, because it asks you to commit to something. Reflectory interviews you about your event and gently draws out a specific, workable "now what" in your own words, with identifiable details screened out and an AI-assistance disclosure built in. You stay the author. It simply helps you finish the part most people leave blank.