Teaching Cognitive Bias in a Hurry: Single-Session Workshop Approach for Psychiatry Residents and Students

Diagnostic ambiguity is commonplace in psychiatric practice. With limited etiological understanding behind the illnesses that we treat, it can be a daunting task to diagnostically approach a complex patient. To avoid diagnostic pitfalls, it is paramount to employ carefully constructed diagnostic cognitive processes. The aim of this resource is to decrease diagnostic thought errors through education via acquired knowledge and skills.

This workshop is intended as a primer for psychiatric medical students, interns, residents, and practicing psychiatrists who have not yet been exposed to this topic. The resource consists of a brief didactic session (knowledge portion of the topic) followed by small-group sessions (skills portion of the topic), led by discussion of clinical vignettes incorporating complex medical-psychiatric patients. The cases highlight the various cognitive biases and anchor points that can contribute to diagnostic error. In order to make it easier for educators to implement, the workshop can be delivered in a single 1-hour session. With the provided material, this educational session can be easily delivered by a single facilitator.

Formal and informal feedback from learners demonstrates that this resource is effective at teaching cognitive bias to learners.

While psychiatric learners are used to metacognitive approaches in clinical settings, they often lag behind other medical specialties in discussing these topics related to their own diagnostic reasoning and acumen. This is especially important in psychiatry given the evolving nature of our specialty.