A workshop to train medicine faculty to teach clinical reasoning

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Reasoning Pedagogy

Background:

• Clinical reasoning (CR) is a fundamental medical education competency.
• Limited research exists on faculty training for teaching CR and leading CR curricula.
• This study details a faculty development workshop designed to enhance CR teaching, grounded in established CR theory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a faculty development workshop focused on teaching clinical reasoning.
• To equip medical educators with theoretical frameworks and practical skills for teaching CR.
• To assess the impact of the workshop on faculty confidence and teaching practices.

Main Methods:

• A 3-hour interactive workshop was delivered to 26 medicine faculty.
• Participants engaged in case-based didactics and role-play exercises.
• Evaluation included pre- and post-Group Observed Structured Teaching Exercises (GOSTE), retrospective pre-post assessments (RPPs), and commitment to change statements (CTCs).

Main Results:

• Post-workshop, faculty demonstrated significant improvements in using problem representation and illness scripts for CR teaching.
• RPPs indicated increased faculty confidence and likelihood to teach CR using theory-based strategies.
• At 2-month follow-up, 81% of participants reported partial implementation of learned techniques.

Conclusions:

• The faculty development workshop effectively enhanced faculty's ability to teach clinical reasoning.
• Participants reported increased confidence and a higher likelihood of employing CR teaching strategies.
• A majority of faculty successfully integrated these new educational strategies into their practice.