Reflective Diaries – An Impactful Learning Strategy in the Undergraduate Palliative Care Learning

Abstract

Introduction Reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyze and evaluate information that lead to critical reflection and window through which one can view and focus self within the context of his/her own lived experience. Objective The study aims to understand palliative care values with the use of reflective diary following home visit to palliative patients. Method Interview was performed during the house visit by the undergraduate medical students. This outreach house visits were organized under community palliative care nursing’s supervision. The students developed a learning activity via assessment of palliative care patients’ needs through qualitative questionnaire. This was recorded in the reflective diary upon return of such activity. The questions asked covered explorative learning and holistic medical tasks such as the impact of patient’s life from emotional, psychosocial, medical and spiritual perspective. Guided questioning guided by supervisor was done to avoid unnecessary communication issues that may aggravate emotional distress. Students were asked to probe using vetted and agreed questions, and explore multidimensional issues in relation to culturally naive Kelantanese population. Result Enjoyful learning experience was recorded. The reality of dealing with patients with chronic disease has put forth a positive intention to perform better as future doctors. Conclusion Reflective diary is an effective tool in community palliative care learning. It documents patients’ plight and students’ sense of responsibility to community. This has invaluable and indirect learning impact as part of their soft skills development.