Facilitating Health Professionals’ Applied Practice Behaviors: A Reflective Practice Intervention

This study examined the impact of reflective practice on the enhancement of reflective skills and subsequent practice behaviors of health professionals. Utilizing a quasi-experimental multiple-baseline crossover design, 20 accredited dieticians were recruited to one of two groups and exposed to three reflective practice treatments and three control periods. Baseline and post-intervention measures of reflection and communication skills were administered to assess the value of the intervention. A significant difference between experimental and control reflection skills scores was reported over the treatment period. Intervention effects were reported for measures of Habitual Action, Reflection, Critical Reflection, and Reflection-in-Learning. For communication skills there was an intervention effect for Listening and Rapport, Questioning Skills, Comprehensiveness, Organization, Transitional Statements, and Approach to Planning and Education. The findings indicate that the intervention was successful for improving participants’ reflective skills, resulting in more favorable practice behaviors. This study makes a novel and significant contribution by providing rigorous empirical evidence to support the value of reflective practice as a meta-cognitive strategy for improving service delivery behaviors in health professionals.