Reading the Self: Medical Students’ Experience of Reflecting on Their Writing Over Time

Purpose To investigate students’ experience (over time) with meta-reflection writing exercises, called Signature Reflections. These exercises were used to strengthen reflective capacity, as part of a 4-year reflective writing portfolio curriculum that builds on a recognized strategy for reflection (narrative medicine) and employs longitudinal faculty–mentors. Method In 2018, the authors conducted 5 focus groups with 18 third-year students from the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons class of 2019 to examine students’ experience with Signature Reflections. Using an iterative, thematic approach, they developed codes to reflect common patterns in the transcripts, distilled conceptually similar codes, and assembled the code categories into themes. Results Three core themes (safe space, narrative experience, mirror of self) and 1 overarching theme (moving through time) were identified. Students frequently experienced relief at having a safe reflective space that promoted grappling with their fears or vulnerabilities and highlighted contextual factors (e.g., trusted faculty–mentors, protected time) that fostered a safe space for reflection and exploration. They often emphasized the value of tangible documentation of their medical school journey (narrative experience) and reported using Signature Reflections to examine their emerging identity (mirror of self). Overlapping with the core themes was a deep appreciation for the temporal perspective facilitated by the Signature Reflections (moving through time). Conclusions A longitudinal narrative medicine-based portfolio curriculum with pauses for meta-reflection allowed students, with faculty support, to observe their trajectory through medical school, explore fears and vulnerabilities, and narrate their own growth. Findings suggest that narrative medicine curricula should be required and sufficiently longitudinal to facilitate opportunities to practice the skill of writing for insight, foster relationships with faculty, and strengthen students’ temporal perspectives of their development.