"Tweet"-Format Writing Is an Effective Tool for Medical Student Reflection

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Professional Development
• Digital Learning Tools

Background:

• Reflective writing is crucial for professional growth in medical education.
• Millennial medical students prefer concise, technology-integrated learning formats.
• Traditional reflective writing can be challenging for digital-native students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel, tweet-style reflective writing assignment for medical students.
• To assess the effectiveness of short-form, technology-based reflection in medical education.
• To engage millennial medical students' unique skill sets in reflective practice.

Main Methods:

• Surgical clerkship students submitted 140-character reflections (tweets) via a digital platform.
• Reflections were analyzed using modified grounded theory methods with intercoder reliability.
• Data were coded a priori for positive/negative domains and experience type.

Main Results:

• 168 tweets were collected from 56 students during their surgical clerkship.
• 42% of tweets had a positive valence, reflecting on patient interaction, education, and career.
• 52% of tweets were deemed reflective, often including emotional responses.

Conclusions:

• Tweet-style reflective writing enabled students to identify and react to salient clerkship experiences.
• The short format effectively captured both positive and negative emotions related to patient interactions, education, and career.
• Early analysis suggests that short-format writing can be an effective method for medical student reflection.