Please don’t make us write an essay! Reflective writing as a tool for teaching health advocacy to medical students

摘要

Health advocacy is an important role for every physician. However, there is no consensus on the best methods to teach this critical medical competency. In 2014, Memorial University of Newfoundland instituted a health advocacy essay as part of the evaluation of clinical clerks during their paediatrics rotation. As the paediatric clerkship discipline coordinator, I evaluate these essays. In their essays, students describe opportunities for advocacy in children’s health, experiences during the rotation and they provide their reflections on applying their new knowledge. Importantly, students frequently report that the exercise has furthered their understanding of this important role. In this opinion piece, I reflect on what the students and I have learned through this process, and discuss that reflective essays, like the one that our program has initiated, may play a valuable role in making future physicians more mindful of the opportunities for advocacy in the area of children’s health.