Can I use AI for my reflective account?

Two rules matter more than any tool: it must be your own work, and nobody may be identifiable.

The short answer

Regulators ask for reflection because the thinking is the point. A reflective account is meant to show what you learned from your own practice. An account written by an AI shows what the AI can write, not what you learned, and the HCPC, for one, says in its standards that a CPD profile must be your own work.

Rules differ between regulators and are still developing, so check your own regulator’s current guidance. The two principles below hold everywhere.

Rule one: it must be your own work

• Risky: asking an AI to write a reflection from a few prompts, or to invent feelings, learning or an action plan for you.
• Safer: using a tool to transcribe what you said, tidy the punctuation, or sort your own sentences under the headings of a form.

A simple test: could you talk through every sentence with your confirmer, supervisor or an auditor, because you said it? If so, it is yours.

Rule two: nobody may be identifiable

Typing a real case into a general chatbot can put confidential information somewhere you do not control. Before anything goes into any tool, take out names, places, dates and unusual details. This applies to the finished account too: reflective accounts must not identify patients, clients, families or colleagues.

Questions to ask of any AI tool

• Does it write new text, or only work with my words?
• Where do my words go, and are they kept?
• Are they used to train AI models?
• Does it help me take identifying details out?

How ReflectReady handles this

ReflectReady was built around these two rules. You speak your reflection, and the AI only sorts your own sentences under the headings of your model or template. It never writes them, and a word-for-word score shows you that. It also helps you take identifying details out. The Your Words page sets out exactly where your words go. Free to try.

Sources: NMC: written reflective accounts, HCPC: standards of continuing professional development.

More guides

• Gibbs reflective cycle: a worked example
• Kolb reflective cycle explained, with an example
• Driscoll’s model of reflection: What? So what? Now what?
• Gibbs, Kolb or Driscoll: which reflective model should you use?
• NMC reflective account: what to include, with an example
• Linking a reflective account to the Code, with an example for each theme
• NMC reflective discussion: what happens, and what goes on the form
• An app for NMC revalidation reflections: what it can and cannot do
• Student nurse placement reflection: a worked example
• Social Work England CPD: a reflective record example
• Social Work England peer reflection: a worked example
• Social Work England CPD deadline: what to record by 30 November
• HCPC CPD: what to record and how to reflect
• BACP CPD: keeping a reflective record as a therapist
• BABCP Reflective Statement: what to write, with an example
• Can I use AI for my reflective account?