Reflection & Self‐Assessment Cycles in a Medical School Anatomy Course
Authors: Patitucci Teresa Noel , Fritz Jeffery D. 
Published: April 2020

Looking beyond medical knowledge into developing character traits like professionalism, self‐awareness, and empathy is a current focus in medical education. Critical reflection and self‐assessment can be used as tools to develop these skills. The aim of this study was to use repeated critical reflection and self‐assessment in a cadaver‐based first‐year medical school human gross anatomy course to develop professional identity and emotional intelligence.

First, learners wrote a critical reflection in response to their choice of writing prompt and received faculty feedback. Learners then completed a self‐assessment of growth in areas of emotional intelligence, listed personal growth fronts, and developed a SMART goal, again receiving faculty feedback. This paradigm was repeated for each block of the course, resulting in 4 cycles total. Reflections were blinded and evaluated using qualitative analysis by two independent coders into three themes: emotional intelligence, teamwork, and wellness/well‐being. At the end of the semester, learners completed a voluntary perception survey using Qualtrics. This project was approved by the Medical College of Wisconsin Institutional Review Board (PRO00032535).

In the area of emotional intelligence, students described struggling with perfectionism in the beginning of the course but by the end reported increased confidence. Learners also described empathy for their “first patient”. In the area of teamwork, students started the year skeptical to work as a group for so long but later appreciated the need to openly acknowledge strengths and weaknesses. An appreciation for the importance of trust amongst team members was also reported at the end of the year. In the well‐being theme, learners began the semester dealing with the concept of death which makes sense given the nature of the course. Around the middle of the semester they really struggled with social and physical wellness. Data on the Emotional Intelligence Inventory suggest that learners found the reflective process to have a positive influence on their growth in the 5 domains of emotional intelligence. Learners most frequently identified self‐care, teamwork, confidence, wellness, time‐management, empathy and adaptability as growth fronts throughout the duration of the course. Follow‐up surveys were completed by 71% of participants where 86.7% of respondents recommended continuing reflective writing assignments in the anatomy course, and two‐thirds could see themselves adapting the reflection/self‐assessment process outside of clinical human anatomy.

In this study, we learned that the first year of medical school is filled with transitions where ongoing personal development of emotional intelligence and goal‐setting can be beneficial. Our learners reported the most growth in areas of self‐awareness and teamwork with continued challenges in the areas of physical & social wellbeing, and personal identity formation (imposter syndrome).

Support or Funding Information

Medical College of Wisconsin Learning Resource Fund