Approximately 79.8% of nursing students in Indonesia experience moderate stress while studying in a clinical environment. Resilience refers to the ability to rise from negative experiences when faced with difficult situations. This study aims to determine the optimisation of the ability to write reflective journals with constructivism theory approaches to increase the resilience of nursing students. This study, with a quasi-experimental one-group pre-test and post-test design, was conducted on 57 students. The results revealed a significant increase in the ability to write reflective journals and resilience level (p = 0.000), as well as a significant relationship between the ability to write reflective journals and an increase in the resilience of nursing students studying in a clinical environment (p = 0.000, r = 0.829). The constructivism theory views knowledge as something built in a person’s mind based on their interpretation of their experiences. This theory was applied in this study by optimising the experiences of respondents who had taken various experiences in the previous clinical environment to serve as material for self-reflection. Workshops using the constructivist theory approach improve nursing students’ resilience and ability to write reflective journals. © Malaysian Association of Education in Medicine and Health Sciences and Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia. 2024.