Employing reflective writing as a tool to enhance development of critical thinking skills among medical students
Keywords:
Critical thinking, Reflections, Reflective writing, Medical educationAbstract
In medical education delivery, reflective writing is a process where medical students evaluate their thoughts and personal experiences. Critical thinking helps medical students and clinicians reach a provisional diagnosis, and decide about the management plans. Reflective writing encourages medical students to deeply analyze their clinical and learning experiences, and this entire process is vital for development of critical thinking skills. Acknowledging the need to train medical students in critical thinking, it is the need of the hour that teachers must explore and encourage students to reflect upon their learning experiences and in the process aid in the attainment of learning outcomes.
Downloads
References
Artioli G, Deiana L, De Vincenzo F, Raucci M, Amaducci G, Bassi MC, et al. Health professionals and students' experiences of reflective writing in learning: A qualitative meta-synthesis. BMC Med Educ. 2021;21(1):394.
Abrams MP, Eckert T, Topping D, Daly KD. Reflective writing on the cadaveric dissection experience: An effective tool to assess the impact of dissection on learning of anatomy, humanism, empathy, well-being, and professional identity formation in medical students. Anat Sci Educ. 2021;14(5):658-65.
Bucknell KJ, Kangas M, Karin E, Crane MF. A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self-reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. Stress Health. 2024;40(2):e3311.
Franco RS, Franco CAGDS, Severo M, Ferreira MA, Karnieli-Miller O. Reflective writing in the teaching of communication skills for medical students-A systematic review. Patient Educ Couns. 2022;105(7):1842-51.
Wellbery C, Saunders PA, Kureshi S, Visconti A. Medical students' empathy for vulnerable groups: Results from a survey and reflective writing assignment. Acad Med. 2017;92(12):1709-14.
Chen I, Forbes C. Reflective writing and its impact on empathy in medical education: Systematic review. J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2014;11:20.
Adams J, Ari M, Cleeves M, Gong J. Reflective writing as a window on medical students' professional identity development in a longitudinal integrated clerkship. Teach Learn Med. 2020;32(2):117-25.
Scott IA, Hubbard RE, Crock C, Campbell T, Perera M. Developing critical thinking skills for delivering optimal care. Intern Med J. 2021;51(4):488-93.
Royce CS, Hayes MM, Schwartzstein RM. Teaching critical thinking: A case for instruction in cognitive biases to reduce diagnostic errors and improve patient safety. Acad Med. 2019;94(2):187-94.
Facione PA, Crossetti MDGO, Riegel F. Holistic critical thinking in the nursing diagnostic process. Rev Gaucha Enferm. 2017;38(3):e75576.
McPhillips H, Wood AF, Smith J. Critical thinking and diagnostic reasoning for advanced clinical practitioners in sexual health. Br J Nurs. 2022;31(10):534-40.
Fabio RA, Croce A, Calabrese C. Critical thinking in ethical and neutral settings in gifted children and non-gifted children. Children (Basel). 2022;10(1):74.
Johna S, Dehal A. The power of reflective writing: narrative medicine and medical education. Perm J. 2013;17(4):84-5.
Woldt JL, Nenad MW. Reflective writing in dental education to improve critical thinking and learning: A systematic review. J Dent Educ. 2021;85(6):778-85.
Naber J, Wyatt TH. The effect of reflective writing interventions on the critical thinking skills and dispositions of baccalaureate nursing students. Nurse Educ Today. 2014;34(1):67-72.
Liao HC, Wang YH. The application of heterogeneous cluster grouping to reflective writing for medical humanities literature study to enhance students' empathy, critical thinking, and reflective writing. BMC Med Educ. 2016;16(1):234.
Olmos-Ochoa TT, Fenwick KM, Ganz DA, Chawla N, Penney LS, Barnard JM, et al. Reflective writing: a tool to support continuous learning and improved effectiveness in implementation facilitators. Implement Sci Commun. 2021;2(1):98.
Sweet L, Bass J, Sidebotham M, Fenwick J, Graham K. Developing reflective capacities in midwifery students: Enhancing learning through reflective writing. Women Birth. 2019;32(2):119-26.
Whitmore CA, Sakai J, Mikulich-Gilbertson SK, Davies RD. A four-week reflective writing program in the psychiatry clerkship: Testing effects on reflective capacity. Acad Psychiatry. 2019;43(2):171-4.
Kaur M, Mahajan R. Inculcating critical thinking skills in medical students: Ways and means. Int J Appl Basic Med Res. 2023;13(2):57-8.
Silldorff EP, Robinson GD. Development of critical thinking skills in human anatomy and physiology. Adv Physiol Educ. 2023;47(4):880-5.
Bjerkvik LK, Hilli Y. Reflective writing in undergraduate clinical nursing education: A literature review. Nurse Educ Pract. 2019;35:32-41.
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Saurabh Shrivastava, Prateek Bobhate, Harshal Mendhe, Swapnil Inkane

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.