A Survey on Medical Students' Viewpoint on Logbook as a Tool for Recording New Ideas and Reflection

Introduction:Reflection promotes self-awareness, self-guidance,and the ability to make crucial descsions in medical doctors.This study was done to determine the viewpoint of the students of medicine,dntistry,and pharmacology studying in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a logbook was designed for recording and analyzing ideas in order to prevent them from being forgotten and to reflect on and use them in practice. This logbook was distributed among students of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy after they had attended an educational workshop on creativity and brain storming. A questionnaire was prepared in order to assess the students' views. The questionnaire was validated for content validity and was approved by experts. Its reliability coefficient was proved to be 0.76% using Cornbach's alpha coefficient. After 2 months, the questionnaires were given to the students. The data were analyzed through SPSS 14. Results: 36% of the respondents had used the logbooks and 64.2% of them evaluated them as effective or very effective. The students who used the logbook recorded 11 ideas in it within 2 months . 46.7% of the students did not record any ideas in the logbook and the reason was expressed to be lack of motivation and low mood. Conclusion: Based on the results, lack of both motivation and inclination for activity leads to lack of effective ideas which are to be practiced in the society. Due to the fact that only 25% of the students used daily schedule section of the logbook, it seems that the students are not familiar with time management strategies and they usually waste their time the problem is not lack of time. However, in spite of the fact that using logbooks by the students is beneficial, educational workshops on time management and also devising concept and mind maps from the ideas are necessary.