Digital storytelling for reflection in undergraduate medical education: a pilot study.

Reflection is widely considered to be essential for lifelong learning and professional practice but it is a nebulous concept with a variety of intended outcomes. A recent review of the use of reflection in medical education considered that it was a process in which greater understanding of self and situations is created to inform future action. This process requires an initial phase of ‘noticing’ when the learner begins to realise that there is a discrepancy between their current actions (based on beliefs and values) and the actions required for effective resolution of the situation that they face. Subsequent phases include making sense of the situation and applying the new understanding to both present and future situations. An essential aspect of reflection is ‘noticing’ and this is particularly powerful when there is a ‘disorientating dilemma’ in which fundamental personal belief and value systems are challenged. An important aspect of reflection is the identification of these ‘disorientating dilemmas’ by the learner but many learners find this difficult to achieve since it requires the development of heightened awareness of both thoughts and emotions. The use of visual images and photographs can allow these personal aspects to be more easily accessed by the learner compared with the use of written text. The personal experience of the authors has been that some first-year undergraduate medical students do not readily engage in reflection. One of the reasons identified in a study at another medical school was that the approach to reflecEducation for Primary Care (2009) 20: 441–44 # 2009 Radcliffe Publishing Limited