Impact of instruction and feedback on reflective responses during an ambulatory care advanced pharmacy practice experience

Objective. To investigate whether instruction and feedback on reflective responses are beneficial in developing pharmacy students to become more reflective practitioners. Methods. Students on an advanced pharmacy practice experience answered weekly reflection questions and were randomly assigned to either an intervention (received instruction and feedback on reflection) or control group. The final week’s responses were de-identified and two blinded faculty members independently categorized them as reflective or nonreflective. The primary outcome measure was comparing the number of “reflective” responses in each group. Results. The responses were classified as reflective in 83.3% of students in the intervention group (n518) compared to 37.5% of the control group (n516). The odds that the response was categorized as reflective were 8.3 times higher in the intervention group. Conclusion. Providing instruction and feedback to students improved the likelihood that their work was reflective.