2015/04/01 by Adam K. Saperstein, Todd Lilje, Todd C. Lilje +1
Social Sciences · Medicine · #Reflective Practices in Education #Innovations in Medical Education #Higher Education Learning Practices
paper · pdf · doi:10.7205/milmed-d-14-00589
It is becoming increasingly well accepted that developing the ability to reflect on one's experiences is an essential attribute of competent healthcare providers.1,–4 This is due in large part to the fact that reflection (perhaps best described as “the expertise-enhancing, metacognitive, tacit process whereby personal experience informs practice”)4 has been demonstrated to develop critical thinking skills, clinical reasoning, foster professionalism, improve patient–provider communication, reduce diagnostic error, and enhance phronesis, the practical wisdom needed to guide clinical practice.1,3,–6 Although reflective practice is often not intuitive (especially for trainees early in their medical careers), it is a skill that can be cultivated through development and implementation of a reflective practice curriculum. Such curricula are most likely to be effective when implemented early and continued throughout the course of a health professional's training.2,4 This article presents one such curriculum, describes its implementation across the 4 years of undergraduate medical education, outlines its potential benefit as a component of interprofessional education, and offers a representative sample of one student's reflective writing to illustrate how embedding a reflective practice curriculum can improve self-awareness and clinical practice.