Reflection as a Learning Tool in Postgraduate Medical Education.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the reflective capacity as a learning tool in pediatric residents.

STUDY DESIGN

Survey.

PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY

The Children's Hospital Lahore, Pakistan from 20th March to 30th March 2021.

METHODOLOGY

In this cross sectional online survey, the participants were postgraduate residents and registrars of Paediatric Medicine, Paediatric Surgery, and Paediatric Diagnostics, working at The Children's Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan. Reflective practices questionnaire (RPQ) was used for measuring the reflective practices and SPSS-24 for data analysis.

RESULTS

Out of a total of 175 study participants, 144 (82.3%) were paediatric medicine residents followed by paediatric surgery 18 (10.3%) and paediatric diagnostic 13 (7.4%) with a slight female preponderance 91 (52%). All years of trainees participated; majority was 4th year trainees 58 (33.1%), and 1st year the lowest 17 (9.7%). The overall mean score of the questionnaire was 69.97 ± 10.79 (95% CI: 68.36 ± 71.58) out of 96 total score. The highest score was of critical appraisal 18.52 ± 3.16 (95% CI: 18.04 ± 18.99) out of 24. There was no difference in mean score of different sub-domains and mean scores based on gender, specialty or year of training (p=>0.05).

CONCLUSION

The overall reflective capacity of paediatric postgraduate residents is good irrespective of specialty, gender or year of training. Critical appraisal of interaction in the reflection is the highest scored domain. Key Words: Postgraduate, Residents, Medical education, Reflection, Practice, Learning tool.