Fostering reflective capacity in undergraduate pharmacy education in Sri Lanka

Purpose: Reflection enhances critical-thinking and problem-solving skills which are considered essential to integrate theory learnt in the classroom with the ambiguities of practice. There is currently international attention on methods of fostering reflective capacity in undergraduate pharmacy education. Aim of the review is to overview the evolution of reflective practice, educational impact of reflection, tools used to enhance reflection, and the possible implications of reflective practice activities in the Sri Lankan undergraduate pharmacy curricula.

 

Methods: A narrative review was undertaken. Articles were retrieved using ‘Google Scholar’ web search engine. All types of literature i.e. consensus reports, original research articles, reviews, books were reviewed in order to gather relevant findings.

 

Results: Limited publications were available in relevance to reflective practice in undergraduate pharmacy education in both Sri Lanka and across the globe. Special emphasis was given to the tools and methods of reflective practice used in similar professional education programs which could be adapted to undergraduate pharmacy education.

 

Conclusion: Despite the inherent challenges in implementation, education programs of many health professions include reflective practice activities in their curricula although it is seldom practiced in undergraduate pharmacy education.