TY - JOUR T1 - Book review JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 230 LP - 230 VL - 56 IS - 524 AU - James Willis Y1 - 2006/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/524/230.abstract N2 - Gillie Bolton Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development 2nd Edition Sage Publications September 2005 PB, 256 pp, £19.99, 1 4129 0812 4 When explaining to me why he had recommended a particular consultant for a particular patient (those were the days) my trainer would often say, ‘X is a “thoughtful” doctor’. It was his highest praise. And reading this new edition of Gillie Bolton's book, it is clear that Reflective Practice means ‘thoughtful practice’. These days, when patients are entitled to take technical competence in their doctors more or less for granted, thoughtfulness remains a cardinal parameter of excellence.This book is describing one particular technique for the promotion of this desirable characteristic. It is one of my quarrels with the title that there are other techniques which achieve a similar end. The Balint Groups which shaped so many of the outstanding GPs of the past are one example. That Balint himself is absent from the index and from the long list of sources — as indeed is Neighbour — shows perhaps how quickly the generations move on.But the … ER -