Background:
Clinical reasoning is the cornerstone of competence in clinical medicine. It is the basis for decisions in diagnosis and formulation of appropriate management plans. An essential aim of medical education is improving clinical reasoning. Teaching clinical reasoning is difficult and there is no consensus as to the best method.
Case Based discussions (CBD) are widely used in undergraduate and postgraduate formative assessment. However, it is unclear as to their educational role. They have the potential to be used to teach and assess clinical reasoning.
The aim of this study is to use two carefully constructed CBD on polyarthritis to assess clinical reasoning, improvement of clinical reasoning and knowledge of the diagnosis and management of polyarthritis. This is assessed using the key features method using multiple choice format and free text.
Methods:
Twenty medicine III students were given two structured paper case discussions on polyarthritis with a trained clinician. This was conducted on an individual basis with a trained clinician. Assessments include knowledge of diagnosis and treatment of polyarthritis, clinical reasoning and changes in clinical reasoning scores between case 1 and 2. Clinical reasoning was assessed using key feature question assessment and MCQ questions on polyarthritis given at the start and the end of the study.
Results:
To follow
Conclusions:
To follow