Clinical vignette-based interactive discussion sessions: feedback from residents

A clinical vignette is a useful tool for teaching both clinical and basic sciences courses. The clinical vignette-based interactive discussion sessions were conducted for residents in the internal medicine department of Universal College of Medical Sciences( Bhairahawa, Nepal) with aim to link the residents to clinical practice setting. The objective of this study was to assess the feedback of participant.

The sessions were done five days a week between January 16 and February 26, 2019. Each session was between 45 and 60 minutes. The clinical vignettes related to internal medicine were downloaded using Google. Each vignette was divided into sections, related questions with responses were developed and the discussion was updated referring to the latest articles on subject. Eleven residents participated in the session. At the end of last session feedback was taken on a validated semi-structured questionnaire. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.

Residents rated the clinical vignette-based interactive discussion sessions on the scale 1 = poor to 10= excellent; usefulness (9.45±1.04), content (9.27±0.90), relevance of session (9.18±1.08), facilitation (9.27±1.10), and overall (9.36±0.81). Participants rated the structure of vignettes discussed (3.73±0.47), the questions related to vignettes discussed (3.82±0.40), and discussion related to vignettes done (3.64±0.50) on a Likert scale 1-4 (4= extremely important, 3= moderately important, 2= slightly important, 1= not important). The two-way interaction, the approach toward differential diagnosis, diagnosis and management, choosing appropriate investigation, clinical relevancy of vignettes, boosts understanding, enhances thinking power and thinking outside the box, improving clinical approach and academic learning were among the strengths of sessions shared by residents. All residents proposed to continue these sessions and develop vignettes of our patients. The majority of the residents recommended conducting session on alternate days.

This method of learning allowing the residents to follow and construct clinical outcome in a logical and systematic sequence that may be applicable in real-life clinical practice settings. This method enhances the thinking power of residents and their problem-solving capacity.