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Beyond the Margins: Reflective Writing and Development of Reflective Capacity in Medical Education

Journal of General Internal Medicine volume 25, pages 746–749 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Reflective capacity has been described as an essential characteristic of professionally competent clinical practice, core to ACGME competencies. Reflection has been recently linked to promoting effective use of feedback in medical education and associated with improved diagnostic accuracy, suggesting promising outcomes. There has been a proliferation of reflective writing pedagogy within medical education to foster development of reflective capacity, extend empathy with deepened understanding of patients’ experience of illness, and promote practitioner well-being. At Alpert Med, “interactive” reflective writing with guided individualized feedback from interdisciplinary faculty to students’ reflective writing has been implemented in a Doctoring course and Family Medicine clerkship as an educational method to achieve these aims. Such initiatives, however, raise fundamental questions of reflection definition, program design, efficacy of methods, and outcomes assessment. Within this article, we consider opportunities and challenges associated with implementation of reflective writing curricula for promotion of reflective capacity within medical education. We reflect upon reflection.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 111 Brewster Street, Pawtucket, RI, 02860, USA

    Hedy S. Wald PhD & Shmuel P. Reis MD, MHPE

  2. Division of Family Medicine, Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Shmuel P. Reis MD, MHPE

Authors
  1. Hedy S. Wald PhD
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  2. Shmuel P. Reis MD, MHPE
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Correspondence to Hedy S. Wald PhD.

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Wald, H.S., Reis, S.P. Beyond the Margins: Reflective Writing and Development of Reflective Capacity in Medical Education. J GEN INTERN MED 25, 746–749 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1347-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1347-4

KEY WORDS

  • medical education
  • reflective writing
  • reflective capacity
  • patient-centered care
  • professionalism