How Do Veterinary Students Engage When Reflecting On Their Development Towards Being Veterinary Surgeons?

Background Relection has been widely acknowledged to contribute to professional development, the ability to manage tension and enhanced resilience. However, many practitioners struggle to relect productively due to a lack of clarity of what constitutes efective relection.Methods To help develop relective competence among future professionals, 30 veterinary students' relective assignments were analysed by thematic text analysis. Theoretical frameworks were based on published criteria for critical and core relection.Results Relection was described through resources (the tools used), practices (the ways of using these tools) and outcomes (what was achieved). This helped to distinguish simple skills based relection from higher-level core relection. Simple skills-based relection was associated with an identity of expert learner: students perceive that their task is to identify a knowledge deicit that can be easily rectiied through new learning. Core relection was associated with students articulating an identity of adaptable professionals: rather than veterinary challenges being resolved simply through application of a body of knowledge, wider complexities of professional practice are recognised, including a need to resolve tension between their own and other stakeholders' priorities, values and beliefs.Conclusion Scafolding an iterative, cyclical relection process may support outcomes oriented towards resilience and the management of tension.