Development of a template to facilitate reflection among student pharmacists

Abstract

This novel and innovative approach supports novice reflectors, encourages reflection on action and enhances professional development. It is a structured yet flexible tool, for which there was a gap in the published literature. It can be utilized in varied placements in pharmacy curricula internationally.

Facilitating the development and maintenance of reflection in speech pathology students

“…The development of reflection is not innate (Driessen, Tartwijk & Dornan 2008); it requires facilitation (Deslandes et al 2018;Ip et al 2012;Plack et al 2008). Reflection provides tertiary healthcare students with a means of furthering their skills and knowledge development within the context of lifelong learning (Donovan 2007;Mamede & Schmidt 2004;Paget 2001;Roche & Coote 2008;Stark et al 2006).…”

“…Prior studies have focused on the development of students' reflection in one placement or with different student cohorts. Recent research in physiotherapy (e.g., Greenfield et al 2017) and pharmacy (e.g., Deslandes et al 2018) has provided evidence of student reflection outcomes across longer durations. For example, Greenfield et al (2017) compared an historical databank of student reflective narratives written without the support of a framework or specific teaching strategy to those generated from a pilot study that used the Gibbs model of reflection to support reflection narratives.…”

“…In addition, Deslandes et al (2018) used action research spanning three years to develop and refine reflective supports for novice pharmacy students during professional placements. This research developed flexible strategies that spanned the reflection continuum and provided students with a fit-for-purpose reflective structure, which depended on their learning stage (e.g., novices were provided with more structure).…”

Evaluating Machine Learning Approaches to Classify Pharmacy Students’ Reflective Statements

“…Please tell us about something that happened in your placements that made you reflect on your role as a pharmacist in patient care and/or the role of other health and social care professionals?" The template had previously been developed by the authors after multiple cycles of action research involving placement supervisor and student input [24]. All student reflective accounts were assessed against a reflective rubric [25,26], developed by integrating Mezirow's [27] and Gibbs' models of reflection, and related to different stages of reflection [24] Replicating a validated approach, four human experts assessed the same set of reflective accounts [25,26].…”

“…The template had previously been developed by the authors after multiple cycles of action research involving placement supervisor and student input [24]. All student reflective accounts were assessed against a reflective rubric [25,26], developed by integrating Mezirow's [27] and Gibbs' models of reflection, and related to different stages of reflection [24] Replicating a validated approach, four human experts assessed the same set of reflective accounts [25,26]. Reflective accounts were assigned a score for each of these stages of reflection: a score of 0 was assigned where the student had not demonstrated any reflective skills in the writing (non-reflective), a score of 0.5 when an attempt was made to relate experiences or feelings with prior knowledge and identify learning (reflective), and a score of 1 when clear links were made between experiences, feelings, learning and a change of behaviour was demonstrated (critically reflective).…”