One year's personal experience with a program to facilitate personal and professional development in medical students using reflection groups

Seeks to integrate sociobehavioral science concepts into the early curriculum through a continuity of ambulatory clinical experience in primary care, and to expose students to a learning environment in which self-awareness and emotional development are nurtured. Second-year students spent half a day twice monthly in a primary care community practice, kept a journal of their experiences, and attended biweekly 60-minute Reflection Groups designed to foster personal awareness and empathic witnessing. Three sources of stress are illustrated: the role and responsibility of the physician, death and dying, and racial issues. Reflection Groups provided students with opportunities to identify and describe stressors, to feel less isolated, and to begin the process of self-awareness development. The program incorporates students' early clinical experience with facilitated opportunities to reflect on the emotional challenges of becoming a physician. (Original abstract - amended)