As the year 2021 is coming to an end ,I could reflect that I pen down this page long time back,perhaps in 2017 . I would suggest people to use a model and add a reference in your reflection. If you have difficulty understanding reflection in publichealth ,feel free to send your queries in the drop box

• Recently, I pen down an example of a reflection on health promotion and public health strategies . Click the link below to read the reflective piece

Reflection in public health: example

• For any further clarification for the topic of reflection, feel free to write me in the comment box below

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One of the critical components of public health studies is to demonstrate an understanding of a concept in public health. Often, the method that is used to evaluate such skills is the reflective discussion.

Your reflection should include:
1. a brief outline of the topic
2. reference to material
3. interpretation related to public health
4. connecting personal observations
5. suggesting how you are going to navigate the reading in your career pathway

For public health students, it is necessary to understand the concept of  analysis for reflective discussion. For instance, narrating an experience is not considered as a thoughtful discussion. In the same way, writing an essay of the topic is not an academic reflection.

Then, what, exactly, is a reflection?

Reflective pieces need to demonstrate one’s understanding of the subject material. A good thinking point is that it can enrich one’s experience because it entails the components of the topic. Therefore, a reflection is a superimposed picture of one’s experience and is part of the subject material.

For instance, writing a reflection on health advocacy in public health may have multiple answers; however, core material would be drawn from a good research paper on advocacy in public health. To make it clearer, let’s assume you work in a hospital where a lot of patients are admitted and treated for malaria. The wrong ways of doing a reflection are describing all medicine for malaria and elaborating on what is malaria. On the other hand, correct way of presenting the scenario in the reflective piece would be to think deeply about the meaning of advocacy and how the people involved are linked to advocacy. Additionally, what did you witness in that area which was responsible for the high number of patients in the hospital for malaria? As a public health professional, what would you like to do, or how can current knowledge of advocacy help you to fight this disease? Do you think that advising of mosquito net could have reduced the problem? It may be possible. If a health provider works with local members in the community to raise awareness about malaria, it will help to reduce the cases of malaria.

Hence, to write a good piece of reflective discussion, one needs to analyse the subject material and demonstrate understanding via examples from one’s own experiences.

One of the ways to navigate writing is to clearly show the gap in the knowledge in the initial part of the paper. For instance, one can write: ” Attending leadership lectures at the University has helped me to understand the difference between a team, coalition and partnership. Before this lecture, I was not sure about the relationship of these three terminologies and was unaware of deeper details of a model of collaboration. This paper will examine the concept of teamwork and cooperation in the field of public health and explore how this learning helps me to navigate my thinking about collaboration.”

I hope this information will help future public health students to develop their papers on reflection
Hence, to write a good piece of reflective discussion one need to analyse the subject material and demonstrate understanding via examples from own experiences.

 

Here is an example of complete reflection  from my university work . A piece of reflective assignment done during my post graduation days . This piece can help you to understand how to develop a reflective assignment. I am providing my original work in word document without much editing  ,in order to give an idea how we navigate a reflection in university assignments .

complete reflection example 

Here is another example of reflection on health promotion and Strategies. Click the link to see the reflective piece

Public health Strategies and health promotion_reflection

Few points : Although there are several ways of doing reflection ,I am suggesting just one:

• Identify a specific area or topic you want to talk about
• What are the key concern or skill needed for that topic
• What you previously know about the topic ?For example , you were completely unaware of the topic or you had little bit idea but now you understand it better .
• Support your arguments with literature . Each argument and thought should clearly referenced with peer review literature
• Finally, mention where all these understanding is shaping you . The last bit is about your achievement in the area. You need to clearly tell your examiner that you like the process or not ,but why ? The last few lines should tell reader about how you going to use the knowledge in future .

 Feel free to ask your questions on reflection in public health at the comment box below 

Click below for more examples;

A reflective discussion:traditional leadership versus strategic leadership

Reflection in public health: example

Hope these point help you to develop your reflection . All the best .