Physician, know thyself: the role of reflection in bioethics and professionalism education

Reflection in medical education is becoming more widespread. Drawing on our Jesuit Catholic heritage, the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine incorporates reflection in its formal curriculum and co-curricular programs. The aim of this type of reflection is to help students in their formation as they learn to step back and analyze their experiences in medical education and their impact on the student. Although reflection is incorporated through all four years of our undergraduate medical curriculum, this essay will focus on three areas where bioethics faculty and medical educators have purposefully integrated reflection in the medical school, specifically within our bioethics education and professional development efforts: 1) in our three-year longitudinal clinical skills course Patient Centered Medicine (PCM), 2) in our co-curricular Bioethics and Professionalism Honors Program, and 3) in our newly created Physician's Vocation Program (PVP).