A Correlational Study on Reflective Capacity and Ethical Engagement in Adult Learners of Health Professions

Abstract

Because professional ethical engagement is essential to the delivery of high-quality healthcare services, health professions education programs must have effective instructional practices to train future healthcare providers of various disciplines to practice ethically. As research has found reflection to be an effective instructional practice for educating adult learners and teaching professional ethics, promoting health professions students’ tendency to reflect by boosting their reflective capacity may be helpful. Therefore, the study sought to examine the relationships between reflective capacity and professional ethical engagement to offer quantitative evidence for the significance of reflection in professional ethical engagement among health professions students. Correlational analyses revealed a strong, positive relationship between reflective capacity and professional ethical engagement in health professions students. Reflective capacity, specifically reflection-on-action and self-appraisal, could predict professional ethical engagement in health professions students. These findings provided insights into the reflective capacity and professional ethical engagement in health professions students. However, further research on the relationship between reflective capacity and professional ethical engagement in adult learners of health professions is needed.

Further development of the Reflective Practice Questionnaire

“…Studies have been conducted utilising the RPQ with medical students (Bari et al, 2021;Horst et al, 2019;Khoshgoftar & Barkhordari-Sharifabad, 2023a, 2023bLee et al, 2023;Rogers et al, 2019;Schwartz et al, 2020;Van Winkle et al, 2021, 2022, surgeons/physicians (Aitken et al, 2021;Whelehan, Conlon & Ridgway, 2021), nurses (Aitken et al, 2021;Al-Osaimi, 2022;Gabrielsson et al, 2022;Gustafsson et al, 2020; professionals (Aurora, Mawren & Fullam, 2023;Or & Golba, 2023;Parrott et al, 2023), pre-service teachers (Day, Webster & Killen, 2022;Fuertes-Camacho, Dulsat-Ortiz & Alvarez-Canocas, 2021), qualified teachers (Chen & Chen, 2022;Gross, 2020;Moeder-Chandler, 2020), and sport coaches (Da Silva et al, 2022). In these studies the RPQ has been used for a range of purposes, such as assessment of the reliability of the RPQ scales (e.g., Gustafsson et al, 2020), comparison between different sub-groups of participants (e.g., Day, Webster & Killen, 2022), and comparison across different time points to explore student development (e.g., Van Winkle et al, 2021).…”

“…In response to this we published a follow up article in 2019 proposing a single reflective practice score by averaging across the four reflective practice sub-scales of the RPQ (Rogers et al, 2019). We were not surprised to see most of the subsequent studies utilising the RPQ made use of this more simplified conceptualisation of the reflective practice measure (Al-Osaimi, 2022; Bari et al, 2021;Da Silva et al, 2022;Day, Webster & Killen, 2022;Gabrielsson et al, 2022;Gross, 2020;Gustafsson et al, 2020;Horst et al, 2019;Khalil & Hashish, 2022;Or & Golba, 2023;Schwartz et al, 2020;Van Winkle et al, 2021, 2022Whelehan, Conlon & Ridgway, 2021).…”

Further development of the reflective practice questionnaire

“…Studies have been conducted utilising the RPQ with medical students ( Bari et al, 2021 ; Horst et al, 2019 ; Khoshgoftar & Barkhordari-Sharifabad, 2023a , 2023b ; Lee et al, 2023 ; Rogers et al, 2019 ; Schwartz et al, 2020 ; Van Winkle et al, 2021 , 2022 ), surgeons/physicians ( Aitken et al, 2021 ; Whelehan, Conlon & Ridgway, 2021 ), nurses ( Aitken et al, 2021 ; Al-Osaimi, 2022 ; Gabrielsson et al, 2022 ; Gustafsson et al, 2020 ; Khalil & Hashish, 2022 ), psychologists ( Sadusky & Spinks, 2022 ), allied health professionals ( Aurora, Mawren & Fullam, 2023 ; Or & Golba, 2023 ; Parrott et al, 2023 ), pre-service teachers ( Day, Webster & Killen, 2022 ; Fuertes-Camacho, Dulsat-Ortiz & Alvarez-Canocas, 2021 ), qualified teachers ( Chen & Chen, 2022 ; Gross, 2020 ; Moeder-Chandler, 2020 ), and sport coaches ( Da Silva et al, 2022 ). In these studies the RPQ has been used for a range of purposes, such as assessment of the reliability of the RPQ scales ( e.g ., Gustafsson et al, 2020 ), comparison between different sub-groups of participants ( e.g ., Day, Webster & Killen, 2022 ), and comparison across different time points to explore student development ( e.g ., Van Winkle et al, 2021 ).…”

“…In response to this we published a follow up article in 2019 proposing a single reflective practice score by averaging across the four reflective practice sub-scales of the RPQ ( Rogers et al, 2019 ). We were not surprised to see most of the subsequent studies utilising the RPQ made use of this more simplified conceptualisation of the reflective practice measure ( Al-Osaimi, 2022 ; Bari et al, 2021 ; Da Silva et al, 2022 ; Day, Webster & Killen, 2022 ; Gabrielsson et al, 2022 ; Gross, 2020 ; Gustafsson et al, 2020 ; Horst et al, 2019 ; Khalil & Hashish, 2022 ; Or & Golba, 2023 ; Schwartz et al, 2020 ; Van Winkle et al, 2021 , 2022 ; Whelehan, Conlon & Ridgway, 2021 ).…”