Teaching Clinical Reasoning to Medical Students: A Case-Based Illness Script Worksheet Approach

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Reasoning Development

Background:

• Clinical reasoning is crucial for physicians but challenging to teach formally to early learners.
• Traditional methods rely on informal, experiential learning during clerkships.
• A structured approach is needed for preclerkship clinical reasoning education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a flipped classroom, case-based approach for developing clinical reasoning skills.
• To utilize problem representation and illness script worksheets as a structured model.
• To enhance clinical reasoning acquisition in preclerkship medical students.

Main Methods:

• Students received screencast introductions to clinical reasoning, problem representation, and semantic qualifiers.
• A case vignette and illness script worksheet were provided for pre-session preparation.
• Small-group sessions facilitated practice of clinical reasoning using the structured worksheet.

Main Results:

• 80% of students preferred the new framework over traditional facilitator-led sessions.
• The illness script worksheet structure was found helpful by faculty facilitators.
• The approach integrates problem representation and structured worksheets for case exploration.

Conclusions:

• The pilot study indicates a successful implementation of a novel clinical reasoning framework.
• The flipped classroom model with illness script worksheets is effective for early learners.
• Plans are in place for systematic integration into the preclerkship curriculum.