Skill Session on Writing Patient Assessments for Pediatric Clerkship Students.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Skills Training
• Diagnostic Reasoning

Background:

• Formulating patient assessments requires synthesizing information and clinical reasoning, skills often lacking in medical students.
• Clinical experience alone is insufficient for developing proficiency in written patient assessments.
• A structured approach is needed to teach this essential clinical skill.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a structured process for medical students to learn patient assessment formulation.
• To address the identified skills gap in synthesizing patient data and developing differential diagnoses.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of an interactive skill session on improving assessment formulation.

Main Methods:

• Third-year medical students attended a large-group, interactive session focused on patient assessment.
• A scripted model guided students through practice examples, covering data synthesis, medical terminology, and differential diagnosis.
• An audience response system facilitated active learning and skill practice.

Main Results:

• A significant increase in patient assessment formulation skills was observed post-session.
• Over 90% of participating students completed pre- and post-session assessments.
• The session positively impacted skills, with most students finding it valuable.

Conclusions:

• The interactive skill session effectively improved students' ability to generate complete written patient assessments.
• The study highlights a curricular gap in teaching essential clinical reasoning and assessment skills.
• A structured, active learning format is beneficial for teaching patient assessment formulation.