Assessment as a Way to Become a Reflective Practitioner - Essay Example

Assessment can be used to become a reflective practitioner in a number of ways (Nilson, 2010). Researchers have suggested that one way is assessing the trainees through journal writing but there are other researchers who have shown that journal writing cannot assess how the practitioners will stop during an activity to frame the problem according to their past experiences and observations. Judging trainees through journal writing can impact their writing so it is not an effective assessment technique.

However, reflective writing still is a great assessment mechanism in which the medical educators assess the writing both qualitatively and quantitatively and find out if the trainees have used a reflective process in analyzing and solving a clinical problem by linking their knowledge with what should be done. Educators can assess whether trainees have tried to synthesize the information in the reflective process and have considered all perspectives to the solution. They can also assess whether the trainees have explored options other than what is needed or have made assumptions but do not know how to apply them.

Thus, this way the educators can assess the trainees through the reflective process.