Contextualised reflective competence: a new learning model promoting reflective practice for clinical training.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Professional Development
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Reflection is crucial for self-regulation, lifelong learning, and professional expertise in healthcare.
• Current medical literature lacks comprehensive guidance on developing reflective abilities for learners and educators.
• Effective reflection is essential for building therapeutic relationships and enhancing professional competence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a framework that assists students, trainees, and educators in cultivating and maintaining reflective practice.
• To address limitations in existing learning paradigms by incorporating ongoing reflection and addressing skill erosion.
• To provide a structured approach for improving reflective competence in professional healthcare settings.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Contextualised Reflective Competence framework based on research with junior doctors.
• Building upon the conscious competency framework by incorporating concepts like ongoing reflection and skill variation.
• Utilizing a two-pronged flowchart to differentiate between reflective competence and incompetence.

Main Results:

• The Contextualised Reflective Competence framework distinguishes between learners with and without reflective competence, leading to either unconscious competence or generalized reflective incompetence.
• Generalized reflective incompetence, characterized by cognitive dissonance, can be overcome with supervision.
• Contextualised reflective competence is linked to intellectual humility, situational awareness, a growth mindset, and belongingness.

Conclusions:

• The framework enhances learners' self-awareness of core competencies and facilitates critical personal reflection.
• It offers educators and supervisors a diagnostic tool for identifying and addressing reflective incompetence.
• The Contextualised Reflective Competence framework is anticipated for application in clinical settings to manage professional competence issues.