Students often find the transition from pre-clinical to clinical learning challenging because it is not always obvious how they should analyze patient presentations in real time. Students first observe and learn clinical reasoning from their teaching residents and faculty in clinical venues. In these clinical settings, learning is often more observational where students seek to emulate systematic frameworks they observe. Clerkship didactics are also important teaching venues to develop students’ clinical reasoning skills. Didactics offer students the opportunity to discuss and understand systematic frameworks through clinical cases.
There are several foundational clinical reasoning frameworks from the literature that can be taught to students. Some examples include problem representation (a synthesized summary highlighting the defining features of a case) and illness scripts (a summary of one’s knowledge about a particular disease). Furthermore, there are clear evidence-based strategies for teaching clinical reasoning effectively in the classroom setting. When students learn clinical reasoning in didactics and apply these skills clinically, they are more likely to be conscious and confident in the different steps of clinical reasoning.
In this webinar, we will outline these frameworks and teaching strategies as well as provide a handout for future reference. Participants will have the opportunity to work in small groups to build a lesson plan that incorporates these tools for teaching clinical reasoning. They will also have the opportunity to reflect on educational challenges that exist in trying to teach clinical reasoning and strategize solutions using tools from workshop faculty as well as other participants.