A categorization scheme for assessing pharmacy students' levels of reflection during internships.
OBJECTIVE
To test the reliability, feasibility, and responsiveness of a categorization scheme for assessing pharmacy students' levels of reflection during internships.


METHODS
Pharmacy interns at Uppsala University were asked to write a reflective essay about patient counseling at the start and end of their internships. A modified version of Kember's categorization scheme for assessing the level of reflection was used to evaluate these essays.


RESULTS
Based on their essay scores, the students' levels of reflection increased during the internship course (p < 0.001) The mean time for categorization was 3 minutes per essay. The interrater reliability of the 182 essays was kappa = 0.63.


CONCLUSIONS
The evaluation of the categorization scheme showed that it has good interrater reliability, feasibility, and responsiveness. This scheme might be useful in pharmacy practice educational settings, but needs further validation.
Wallman
Andy
A
Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Lindblad
Asa Kettis
AK
Hall
Stina
S
Lundmark
Annika
A
Ring
Lena
L
D000328:Adult; D004512:Education, Pharmacy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007397:Internship, Nonmedical; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods; D024382:Professional Role / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000523:psychology*; D013548:Sweden; D013850:Thinking; D014956:Writing / Q000592:standards*