Dual and duelling purposes: An exploration of educators' perspectives on the use of reflective writing to remediate professionalism in residency

CONTEXT: Professionalism lapses have high stakes for learners and educators. Problems with professionalism, unless appropriately and effectively remediated, may portend serious problems in practice. Yet, remediation for unprofessional behaviour is particularly challenging—and understudied. Increasingly, educators are turning to reflective writing as a remediation strategy in residency, yet little is known about what educators expect reflective writing to accomplish, how they choose reflective writing tasks, why they use reflective writing, or how they evaluate whether a learner has met expectations. We aimed to understand why and how postgraduate medical educators use reflective writing as an educational intervention to remediate professionalism. METHOD: In this constructivist grounded theory study, we interviewed 13 medical education professionals with experience using reflective writing to remediate professionalism across five Canadian medical schools. Data collection and analysis occurred iteratively using constant comparison to identify themes and to understand the relationships among them. RESULTS: Medical educators reported using reflective writing as a learning tool to develop insight and as an assessment tool to unearth evidence of insight. The goal of learning may compete with the goal of assessment, creating tension that leads to uncertainty about the sincerity, quality and effectiveness of reflective writing as well as concerns about learner safety. Educators reported uncertainty about whether learners write to pass or to introspect and about how to judge the effectiveness of reflective writing as a learning tool. They expressed concern about creating a safe environment for learners—one that enables the genuine reflection required for insight development—while meeting requirements of remediation. CONCLUSIONS: Educators express ambivalence about using reflective writing to remediate professionalism in residency. Understanding the potential and pitfalls of reflective writing may inform more tailored and effective approaches to remediate professionalism.