Guidelines

The reflections are an integral part of the student learning process that will evolve and develop over their four years in pharmacy school. This valuable document is essential to the curriculum and will help ensure students continue to apply what they learn in the didactic curriculum and apply it in various settings such as health fairs, outreach programs, community service, group projects, and projects in professional and academic organizations. Students need to complete at least one reflection per academic quarter. Reflections will not be graded but will be evaluated for the student’s professional development by their faculty advisors. The reflections must be completed using the E*Value system in the coursework function and submitted to their faculty advisor. The reflections will be monitored by the Office of Assessment and the Office of Experiential Education. If the student receives a score of 1, they will need to resubmit the reflection to the faculty advisor by the deadline determined by the faculty advisor.

Reflections

Reflections are a way for students to express and think more deeply and critically about their experiences. Reflection is necessary to make connections between experience and learning. It reinforces the learning process and is a vital component of learning, professional growth and better prepares the student for the next encounter. By reflecting on experiences, students enter into a cycle of continuous learning. As a pharmacy professional, continuous learning should be a cornerstone to practice. The reflective process is an opportunity to think more deeply about a specific event/activity and the handling of a situation demonstrates the level of competence of a specific objective. The reflection documents are designed to capture a summary of the event/activity and thought process that occurred during the experience. The questions will guide students to think more completely about the experience.

For reflections, students are encouraged to write about both good experiences and experiences that the student felt could have been better. We all learn from our mistakes, so students should not be afraid to reflect on how they may approach a situation or experience differently. Please limit reflections to one page. Reflections should focus on answering the following questions:

1. What did you learn from the experience?
2. Could you correlate the experience to something you learned in the curriculum?
3. What would you have done differently in your practice experience?
4. Did you interact with other healthcare professionals? Could you reflect on that experience and what you learned working in that setting?
5. If you interacted with patients, reflect on the demographics, age, and reflect on the cultural interactions with patients.
6. How did the experience or activity shape their perception of being a future pharmacist?
7. Please include how this reflection correlates with any of the Program-Level Educational Outcomes.