Narrative reflective practice in medical education for residents: composing shifting identities

rrative reflective practice in medical education for residents: composing shifting identities Original Research (3828) Total Article Views Authors: Jean Clandinin, Marie Thérèse Cave, Andrew Cave Published Date December 2010 Volume 2011:2 Pages 1 - 7 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/AMEP.S13241 Jean Clandinin1, Marie Thérèse Cave2, Andrew Cave2 1Center for Research for Teacher Education and Development, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; 2Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Abstract: As researchers note, medical educators need to create situations to work with physicians in training to help them attend to the development of their professional identities. While there is a call for such changes to be included in medical education, educational approaches that facilitate attention to the development of medical students' professional identities, that is, who they are and who they are becoming as physicians, are still under development. One pedagogical strategy involves narrative reflective practice as a way to develop physician identity. Using this approach, medical residents first write narrative accounts of their experiences with patients in what are called "parallel charts". They then engage in a collaborative narrative inquiry within a sustained inquiry group of other residents and two researcher/facilitators (one physician, one narrative researcher). Preliminary studies of this approach are underway. Drawing on the experiences of one medical resident in one such inquiry group, we show how this pedagogical strategy enables attending to physician identity making.