Table 2 Summary of articles included in meta-synthesis (divided per groups: students and professionals)

 Tsang et al. (2010) [35] “Oral health students’ perceptions of clinical reflective learning-relevance to their development as evolving professionals” (Australia)

Student perceptions of clinical reflective learning and its relevance to their clinical and professional development.

17 students

Yes

Oral health professionals

Quantitative and qualitative analyses

Thematic analysis

14/30 Low to Moderate

 Wald et al. (2010) [36] “The loss of my elderly patient: interactive reflective writing to support medical students’ rites of passage” (United States of America)

Implement a narrative medicine curriculum innovation of students’ reflective writing.

25 students

Yes

Doctors

Qualitative study

Brown Educational Guide to the Analysis of Narrative (BEGAN)

18/30 Moderate

 Garrison et al. (2011) [37] “Qualitative analysis of medical student impressions of a narrative exercise in the third-year psychiatry clerkship” (United States of America)

Examine students’ written reactions to the narrative exercise, which drawing from narrative medicine and narrative therapy.

46 students

Yes

Doctors

Qualitative method

Thematic analysis

20/30 Moderate

 Kuo et al. (2011) [38] “Using clinical caring journaling: nursing student and instructor experiences” (Taiwan)

Explore the experiences and perceptions of student nurses using clinical care journaling.

880 students + 90 clinical instructors

Yes

Nurses

Descriptive qualitative research

Constant comparative method

18/30 Moderate

 Bagnato et al. (2013) [39] “The reflective journal: a tool for enhancing experience-based learning in nursing students in clinical practice” (Italy)

Understand the level of students’ reflections; The students’ experience.

33 students

Not described

Nurses

Qualitative data analysis

Mezirow’s qualitative method

13/30 Low to Moderate

 Constantinou et al. (2013) [40] “Physiotherapy students find guided journals useful to develop reflective thinking and practice during their first clinical placement: a qualitative study” (Australia)

Do physiotherapy students perceive that guided journals facilitate reflective thinking and practice?

90 students

Yes

Physiotherapists

Mixed methods study

Leximancer© V3.5 Software

15/30 Low to Moderate

 Jonas-Dwyer et al. (2013) [41] “First reflections: third-year dentistry students’ introduction to reflective practice” (Australia)

Introduce reflective practice to students; evaluate students’ self-perceived reflective skills before and after their reflective activities.

46 students

Yes

Dentists

Qualitative study

Wong et al.’s Schema

21/30 Moderate to High

 Bowman et al. (2014) [42] “Academic reflective writing: a study to examine its usefulness” (United Kingdom)

To explore students’ experiences of doing assessed academic reflective writing.

8 students

Not described

Nurses and midwives

Qualitative research methodology

Kitzinger and Barbour’s method

19/30 Moderate

 Padykula (2016) “RN-BS students’ reports of their self-care and health-promotion practices in a holistic nursing course” (United States of America)

Explore the utility of reflective journal writing for enhancing RN-BS students’ self-care and health-promotion practices.

15 students

Not described

Nurses

Qualitative single case study

Creswell’s method

26/30 High

 Binyamin (2018) [43] “Growing from dilemmas: developing a professional identity through collaborative reflections on relational dilemmas” (Israel)

Illustrate how the pedagogical method of collaborative reflection can develop occupational therapists’ professional identity.

196 students

Yes

Occupational therapists

Qualitative research

Thematic analysis

16/30 Moderate

 Hwang (2018) [44] “Facilitating student learning with critical reflective journaling in psychiatric mental health nursing clinical education: a qualitative study” (Korea)

Explore types of events or issues that senior nursing students chose to reflect upon in their critical reflective journals during their 5-week psychiatric mental health nursing clinical practicum; assess students’ evaluations of critical reflective journaling.

59 students

Yes

Nurses

Qualitative study

Qualitative content analysis

16/30 Moderate

 Persson et al. (2018) [45] “Midwifery students’ experiences of learning through the use of written reflections – an interview study” (Sweden)

Examine how midwifery students experienced the writing of daily reflections on their practice.

19 students

Yes

Midwives

Interview study using an inductive method with descriptive design

Qualitative thematic content analysis.

23/30 Moderate to High

 Levine et al. (2008) [46] “The impact of prompted narrative writing during internship on reflective practice: a qualitative study” (United States of America)

Understand if prompted narrative writing led to increasing reflection by the study participants and what impact this had on participants’ attitudes and behaviors.

32 professionals

Not described

Internal medicine residents

Prospective qualitative study

Qualitative analysis

21/30 Moderate to High

 Cashell (2010) [47] “Radiation therapists’ perspective of the role of reflection in clinical practice” (Canada)

To explore radiation therapist’s understanding of the concept of reflection and how it was incorporated into their daily practice.

123 professionals

Yes

Radiation therapists

Mixed methods study

Thematic analysis

21/30 Moderate to High

Vachon et al. (2010) [48] “Using reflective learning to improve the impact of continuing education in the context of work rehabilitation” (Canada)

Describe how occupational therapists used reflective learning to integrate research evidence into their clinical decision-making process and identify the factors that influenced the reflective learning process.

8 professionals

Yes

Occupational therapists

Collaborative research

The data analysis process was based on the methods proposed in Grounded Theory

25/30 High

 Karkabi et al. (2014) [49] “The use of abstract paintings and narratives to foster reflective capacity in medical educators: a multinational faculty development workshop” (Israel)

Foster reflective capacity using art and narrative.

23 professionals

Yes

Family medicine physicians

Qualitative assessment

Thematic analysis

16/30 Moderate

 Caverly et al. (2018) [50] “Qualitative evaluation of a narrative reflection program to help medical trainees recognize and avoid overuse” (United States of America)

To describe a writing program and to explore how participating influenced the thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.

20 professionals

Yes

Internal medicine residents

Qualitative research methodology

Thematic analysis

20/30 Moderate