Reflective Journaling and Development<i>of</i>CULTURAL HUMILITY IN STUDENTS

Abstract

Cultural humility requires self-evaluation and the awareness that one's own culture is not the only or best one. Teaching health care providers to become culturally humble includes the development of critical thinking skills and the ability to reflect on practice. Journaling as a teaching strategy helps students develop these skills. This article describes the use of reflective journaling as students progressed through four semesters of a community clinical experience. This qualitative, descriptive study was based on the principles of naturalistic inquiry with person-centered written reflections.Two hundred journal entries from 50 students were reviewed, and II themes were identified. Cultural humility cannot be learned merely in the classroom with traditional teaching methods. Reflection on experiences over time leads to the development of cultural humility.