Teaching Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis: A Workshop for Hospitalists

Teaching on physical examination, especially evidence-based physical diagnosis, is at times lacking on general medicine rounds. We created a hospitalist faculty workshop on teaching evidence-based physical diagnosis.

The workshop included a systematic approach to teaching evidence-based physical diagnosis, multiple teaching resources, and observed peer teaching. A long-term follow-up session was offered several months after the workshop. Participants completed questionnaires before and after the workshop as well as after the long-term follow-up session.

Four workshops were conducted and attended by 28 unique participants. Five hospitalists attended long-term follow-up sessions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, repeat sessions and long-term follow-up were limited. In paired analyses compared to preworkshop, respondents after the workshop reported a higher rate of prioritizing ( p = .008), having a systematic approach to ( p < .001), and confidence in ( p = .001) teaching evidence-based physical diagnosis. Compared to before the workshop, participants after the workshop were able to name more resources to inform teaching of evidence-based physical diagnosis ( p < .001). Informal feedback was positive. Respondents noted that the workshop could be improved by allowing more practice of the actual physical exam maneuvers and more observed teaching.

We created and implemented a workshop to train hospitalists in teaching evidence-based physical diagnosis. This workshop led to improvements in faculty attitudes and teaching skills. Long-term outcomes were limited by low participation due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.