External Curriculum Review Results

From October 18th to November 30th 2022, we gathered data from a survey set out to evaluate various aspects of the DID-ACT clinical reasoning curriculum. These aspects included personal data, objectives, technology, impact, learning activities, and assessment/feedback.
A total of 32 reviewers participated in this External Quality Review. The survey was based on quantitative questions, however, reviewers were also asked to add comments in free-text boxes.

Overall, the feedback received was very positive. The majority of participants evaluated the objectives and expectations of the curriculum as being clearly stated and that sufficient instructions were provided to work with and through the learning units. Most participants were able to navigate through the website and viewed the technology and media provided as playing a supporting role to the learning units. A large number of respondents (n=19) agreed that these learning units will improve students’/learners’ clinical reasoning abilities. The same number of respondents also agreed that the learning units will improve the way educators teach clinical reasoning. The learning activities were seen as aiding in engaging in and achieving the objectives set forth in the learning units. The different forms of assessment and feedback were considered appropriate and allowed learners to assess their progress.

Some respondents provided comments with valuable feedback, such as

  • Some reviewers found the interface a bit “old- fashioned” and would have preferred a more convenient, modern interface, but one also mentioned that they did not experience any technical issues and still managed to follow the learning units with interest.
  • Reviewers found the platform to be interesting, and the virtual patients, which are part of the curriculum “entertaining”, which indicates that these educational resources are encouraged learner interaction. 
  • Other reviewers commented on the excellent quality of the work created, and how important and novel the curriculum is to fill the gap of clinical reasoning knowledge in medical education. They also appealed to the importance of disseminating the curriculum, to both students and educators alike. 
  • Comments about the objectives included that they were clear and indicated that there would be no issues in understanding the process of the learning units. 

Overall, we feel that we have gathered very positive feedback from our external reviewers in this survey, and are happy with its outcome. With all the reviews and feedback received, we will continue improving and sustaining the work that has been done in the DID-ACT project so far.

Piloting and evaluation of refined DID-ACT learning units at EDU

In fall 2022, we decided to pilot additional four learning units at EDU to test them after the refinement process, which occurred earlier in the year. We piloted the following learning units (see descriptions) and obtained qualitative feedback from facilitators and students.

Student Curriculum – Person Centred Approach to clinical reasoning

This learning unit was piloted in 2021, however, we wanted to re-evaluate it to assess the refinements with learners and facilitators. The learning unit was taught by the same facilitator as 2021 saw. After the session, the facilitator expressed that the structure of the session was more fluent and students were more happy to engange in the session. Moreover, students thought the real life example of a person-centred perspective had a real positive impact on their learning. 

Student Curriculum – Ethical aspects – patient management and treatment

This learning unit was piloted was previously not piloted by any partner.  Overall, both the facilitator and the learners found the learning unit useful and interesting, and commented that the interactive activities and case examples were very useful in delivering the content. Minor suggestions for improvements were recommended.

Train the Trainer – Information gathering, generating differential diagnoses, decision making and treatment planning

This learning unit was previously piloted by partners from Maribor, Bern, and Krakow, but not EDU. After the session and comparable to the earlier pilots, we received positive feedback from participants regarding the content and structure of the learning unit. Also, the need for such teaching was made clearer. 

Train the Trainer – Discussing and teaching about cognitive errors and biases.

This learning unit was previously not piloted by partners. Again, the structure and content of the learning unit were well received, and especially the fishbone diagram and wiki of this learning unit were appreicated by participants.

Overall, the additional pilots indicated that the refinements earlier on in the year were successful in improving the created DID-ACT curriculum and we are happy with the results we achieved. Prior to implement a learning unit, we recommend familiarizing oneself with the DID-ACT learning platform (Moodle), so teaching can run more smoothly. The additional pilots also reaffirm what we saw in our needs analysis, that there is a need for both teachers and learners to learn about clinical reasoning, and we hope that our curriculum can start filling this needs gap.

Inspiring face to face DID-ACT Project meeting in Kraków, Poland

On September 26th and 27th 2022, our Polish project partners hosted our final face to face project meeting in the beautiful city of Kraków, Poland. 
There were feelings of melancholy since we all really enjoy working together on this project which is soon coming to an end. However, there was also optimism for future collaborations, along with the remaining work and the online meetings.

In Kraków we had many inspiring discussions relating to the sustainability plans for the project, along with discussions about dissemination and our long-term integration plans.

On the first day, we presented the different approaches to integrating the clinical reasoning curricula at our institutions, including some discussion about the bottom up and top down integration approaches, and the pros and cons of each. The results and outcomes of the project were also discussed, as well as some specifics about the finalization of the project. On the second day, we focused on the sustainability plans and further research to be published, and agreed on some dissemination activities.
We all learned a lot from each other’s fruitful ideas and the team spirit was strong!

DID-ACT at AMEE 2022 in Lyon, France

AMEE conference location in Lyon, France

AMEE 2022, with more than 2400 international attendee, was big this year for the DID-ACT project! We were happily surprised by the interest shown to the project in our presentations and E-poster over the days, but we were especially surprised by the pre-conference workshop on “Teaching clinical reasoning toolkit”, during which we had more attendees (from all over the world) than registered. At the beginning of this workshop we introduced participants into the DID-ACT curriculum, which was followed by a small group work on three selected learning units, which participants should discuss in their group and develop ideas for integrating them into their curriculum.

Monika Sobocan from Maribor leading the DID-ACT workshop on teaching clinical reasoning

Another highlight was the E-Poster from one of our medical students, Melina Körner (University of Augsburg), who presented the two videos she created together with Ada Frankowska from Kraków and Elisa Schneider from Augsburg. The videos are designed to support educators in selecting clinical reasoning teaching methods.

Melina Körner presenting her E-Poster

Overall, we received a lot of positive feedback on the DID-ACT curriculum and the integration guide, and educators were particularly happy about the fact that the material is under a creative commons license, and can therefore be used freely in clinical reasoning education.

The feedback we received at the AMEE 2022 will be included in the final work on the integration guideline and also into our sustainability model.

DID-ACT at the hybrid Medical Education Forum in Kraków on Sep 28-29th 2022

We are excited to announce that members of DID-ACT will be presenting research from the project alongside other great work at the Medical Education Forum (MEF) 2022 from the 28th-29th of September! DID-ACT partners from Poland, Germany, and the US will be present. The MEF program includes the following topics and slots related to clinical reasoning research:

TopicDate Presenter
Teaching clinical reasoning: four key lessons from the literature28/9/22
11:40-12:00
Steven Durning, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, USA
Building a European collection of virtual patients for clinical reasoning training within the iCoViP project28/9/22
12:00–12:20
Inga Hege University of Augsburg, Germany
Developing, implementing, and disseminating an adaptive clinical reasoning curriculum for healthcare students and educators: the outcomes of a European project28/9/22
12:20-12:40
Andrzej A. Kononowicz, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Workshop: Tips and tricks on how to teach clinical reasoning effectively supported by virtual patients
29/9/22
11:30-13:45
Inga Hege, Małgorzata Sudacka, Andrzej A. Kononowicz, Steven Durning

For more information regarding the program that includes a whole session about clinical reasoning, please see the program.
For more information regarding registration, please go to registration

We would be very excited to see you in person or virtually at the MEF2022 and talk about clinical reasoning in healthcare education!

Available Resources for Students and Educators

With much work currently still being done to refine the student curriculum and the integration guideline, we already have a lot of additional resources which may be useful for both students and educators available freely on our site!

On our website you can find information about how to get started using DID-ACT resourcesfor students, educators. The recommended literature section includes literature regarding various aspects of clinical reasoning within medical education, including barriers, longitudinal teaching, interprofessional teaching, blended learning techniques and faculty development. Our open educational resources include various resources and also a link to a pool of 200 multilingual virtual patients created by another Erasmus+ funden project iCoViP. Other information regarding the curriculum, integration and some FAQs are also available on the DID-ACT Curriculum page.

Links to DID-ACT videos about the project are also available, including videos about clinical reasoning, and diagnostic errors. These videos are also available as a playlist on YouTube and most of them are integrated into the DID-ACT curriculum.

If you have any suggestions or would like to send us feedback, please just leave us a comment.

Students in DIDACTProject: Meet Elisa!

Elisa is a sustainable design student studying in Cologne and has been active in the DID-ACT Project since May 2021! Even though it is her first experience in medical education, Elisa easily managed to help various members of our team by creating storyboards, videos, audio recordings and animations based on summaries given to her in the curriculum development process. She works on a piece approximately every month, and has worked on over 12 pieces in total, each of which can take her days to create. Needless to say, Elisas’ contribution to the project has been essential. A big thank you to Elisa for her contribution to the DID-ACTProject and to @Daniel Donath from EDU-A Degree Smarter for the blog post!

Exemplary videos from Elisa include:

To see all of her videos, please visit the DID-ACT YouTube channel

Looking Forward: DID-ACT 2022

It is hard to believe our clinical reasoning project is already ⅔ complete. Being the final year of the project, we look back at our learning units, pilots, and evaluations with appreciation for how they bring us into the project’s next phase.

Curriculum Refinements

The DID-ACT project team is currently full speed toward our next round of project deliverables. Building from last year’s pilots implementations, we are taking our curriculums into their refinement stages. We will be working on the train-the-trainer (TTT) course’s refinements (D3.3), which we aim to have ready by May. Alongside this, we are finalising the student curriculum (D 4.1), which we will have ready by the end of March.  

Upcoming Student Clinical Reasoning Curriculum

Happening simultaneously is the evaluation and analysis of learner activities for the student curriculum (D5.3). Our results, retrieved from the pilot implementations of the student curriculum, are being sorted and reported on under the leadership of Dr A. Kononowicz (Jagiellonian University). We look forward to these results as they will be implemented as refinements for the student course, which is planned to start in April 2022.

Curriculum Integration Guideline

Apart from the curriculum, the curriculum integration guideline is being prepared. This document will serve as a guide for various institutions aiming to integrate the curriculum into their own institutions. While it is currently being drafted as part of WP7, led by EDU and supported by Instruct, it will need to be refined after the curriculum is completed. This will go hand in hand with the sustainability model, which is due at the end of the project.

Dissemination of the results of the project and research done by partners surrounding the project will also continue; results will be shown at medical education conferences, including the AMEE.
Time speeds forward as we are working to bring this project to life and help support educators and students develop their clinical reasoning skills. Here’s to the DID-ACT project starting off 2022!

Virtual Patients (VPs)

The virtual patients integrated into the DID-ACT learning units are partly taken from the EU-funded project iCoViP and form the collection for deliberate practice. The virtual patients are freely accessible via the CASUS system at https://crt.casus.net and a description of available VPs with key symptoms and final diagnoses is available in this blueprint. Thus, you can choose VPs suitable for your students and also offer them the whole collection for longitudinal and deliberate practice.

Participants: Medical educators

Learning units: Person-centered approach and the role of patients
Level: Teacher

Description: Offered as part of the faculty development to faculty educators.
Mode: Part to the faculty development program with emphasize on the educational potential of clinical reasoning teaching techniques

Technical Integration: Access to the DID-ACT Moodle, synchronous sessions were held via the virtual platform NewRow.

Tips & Tricks:

Participants: Multi-professional educators (nurses, physicians, paramedics)

Learning units: What is Clinical Reasoning and Models
Level: Teacher

Description: Offered as additional faculty development opportunity to staff members of the Medical Education Department.
Mode: Option / additional part to the faculty development program with emphasize on the educational potential of clinical reasoning teaching techniques

Technical Integration: Access to the DID-ACT Moodle via EduGain, synchronous sessions were held face-to-face.

Tips & Tricks: Give participants time to familiarize themselves with the learning material between the sessions. Do not put too much in one day - better to meet twice for shorter sessions. Face-to-face sessions lead to more productive discussions than Zoom meetings. Focus on discussion with the audience and on examples from practical teaching to illustrate the learning objectives.

Participants: Multi-professional educators

Learning units: Differences and similarities in clinical reasoning among health professions
Level: Teacher

Description: Offered as part of the faculty development program, it was held as a blended learning course with the synchronous phase online.
Mode: Part of the faculty development program with certificate

Technical Integration: Access to the DID-ACT Moodle via EduGain, synchronous sessions were held online via Zoom.

Tips & Tricks: Give good practical information how Moodle works and how the participants can find and work with the different assigments of the learning unit. Emphasize the importance to the participants to work with the different individual tasks, as the discussions will be more interesting and fruitful. Also important that all the participants from different occupations feel comfortable to meet and that they all are a part of the discussion. This is an important and maybe the primary task for the facilitator!

Participants: Multi-professional and international educators

Learning units: Clinical Reasoning teaching and assessment & What is Clinical Reasoning and Models
Level: Teacher

Description: Offered as optional learning unit for participants of the Master of Medical Education (MME) program in Bern/Switzerland.
Mode: Part of the faculty development program with certificate

Technical Integration: Access to the DID-ACT Moodle via EduGain, synchronous sessions were held face-to-face.

Tips & Tricks: To foster a valuable learning experience it is indispensible to provide good case examples that are tailored to the needs and experiences of the participants, so that they can relate to their prior knowledge. Thus, the provided examples in this learning units might need some adaptations for your target group of educators.

Participants: Multi-professional educators across German-speaking coutries

Learning units: Differences and similarities in clinical reasoning among health professions
Level: Teacher

Description: Offered as part of the faculty development program at the University of Augsburg, but open to participants from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was held as a blended learning course with the synchronous phase online. Participants were eager to exchange their experience and disucss their views across institutions and professions.
Mode: Part of the faculty development program with certificate

Technical Integration: Access to the DID-ACT Moodle via EduGain, synchronous sessions were held online via Zoom.

Tips & Tricks: To foster a valuable interprofessional experience the participants should represent a balanced mix of professions and also ideally the facilitators should at least represent two different professions. This allows a good discussion and also guarantees that the small groups can work interprofessionally. Our experience with a less-balanced group composition was that the over-represented profession dominates the discussions and it was quite difficult to counter-balance this.

Target group: Medical students in year 2

Learning units: Person-centered approach to clinical reasoning
Level: Novice

Description:The Learning Unit was run as an extra-curricular session as a virtual class. The facilitators were trained on this topic by attending the Train-the-trainer learning unit on "Person-centered approach and the role of patients".
Mode: Extracurricular activity

Technical Integration: Access to the DID-ACT Moodle via EduGain, synchronous sessions were held online via NewRow.

Tips & Tricks: Learning objective cross-referencing with the existing curriculum helps identify the level of integration. Encouraging and helping students to get familiar with Moodle before the session facilitates a smooth integration of the asynchronous phases.

Target group: Medical students in year 4 and 5

Learning units: Generating differential diagnoses and deciding about final diagnoses
Level: Novice

Description: The learning unit was integrated into a pediatric emergency department clerkship with a relation to virtual patients already used in this clerkship. Facilitators were trained by attending the train-the-trainer unit on "Information gathering, Generating differential diagnoses, Decision making, and Treatment planning".
Mode: Part of a regular curricular activity

Technical Integration: Access to the DID-ACT Moodle via EduGain, synchronous sessions were held face-to-face.

Tips & Tricks: Integration into clerkships works well, especially with a relation to already used content.

Target group: Medical students in year 1-6

Learning units: All 25 learning units of the DID-ACT curriculum
Level: Novice - Advanced

Description:
Longitudinal integration of the DID-ACT learning units into a clinical skills & communication course with the following suggested distribution across years:
Year 1: What is Clinical Reasoning, Person-centered approach to clinical reasoning, Health profession roles in clinical reasoning, and Biomedical Knowledge & Clinical Reasoning. (Required time in curriculum ca. 5 hours / semester)
Year 2: Dual Process Theory, Illness scripts, Collect and prioritize key clinical findings/problems, and What is clinical reasoning and How can theories be put into practice (Intermediate). (Required time in curriculum: ca. 4 1/2 hours/semester)
Year 3: Generating differential diagnoses and deciding about final diagnosis, Biases and cognitive errors - an Introduction, Analyzing and avoiding errors. (Required time in curriculum: ca. 4 1/2 hours/semester)
Year 4: Using the Outcome Present State Test Model, Developing a treatment plan, Metacognition, reflection and models for reflection, Collaboration of health professions in Clinical Reasoning (Intermediate). (Required time in curriculum: ca. 6 hours/semester)
Year 5: All remaining intermediate learning units: Shared Decision Making in Clinical Reasoning, Decision Support Systems, Ethical aspects - patient management and treatment, Uncertainty. (Required time in curriculum: ca. 5 hours/semester)
Year 6: All 6 advanced learning units: Collaborate with others in clinical reasoning, Decision Support Systems, Biases and cognitive errors, Uncertainty, Metacognition, reflection and models for reflection, Analyzing and avoiding errors.
(Required time: ca. 6 hours / semester. Final year students often have a day/week off from clinical work so these days could be used for DID-ACT learning units and optional participation in the train-the-trainer units)
Years 1-5: Virtual Patients (VPs) as additional deliberate practice activities in increasing number and complexity (e.g. starting with 5 VPs (=ca. 1.5 hours)/semester) in Year 1 and increasing to 10 VPs/semester) in Year 3-5.
Mode: Integrated into a clinical longitudinal course that runs from year 1 to 6 resulting in a total of 2.4 ECTS.

Technical Integration: Access to the DID-ACT Moodle via EduGain, synchronous sessions face-to-face or online.

Tips & Tricks:
Alining a longitudinal curriculum with curricula of other health professions remains a challenge and requires careful and early planning, but the asynchronous phases might be a good starting point for interprofessional teaching sessions. The VPs can be quite easily aligned with other curricular courses e.g., based on key symptoms.

Target group: Medical students in year 3

Learning units: Person-centered approach to clinical reasoning
Level: Novice

Description: The learning unit was integrated into the Laboratory Training of Clinical Skills. This course consists of six face-to-face meetings for groups of around 10 students. Within the meetings the students discuss various topics related to communication skills and person-centered approach. The fifth of the six meetings of the course was replaced by the DID-ACT learning unit. Students could then refer back to this learning unit during final session of the course.
Mode: Part of a regular curricular activity

Technical Integration: Access to the DID-ACT Moodle via EduGain, synchronous sessions were held face-to-face. If possible, a uniform technology to provide access to the online resources in the class (using university tablets in our case) and support of the technical staff on-site was helpful to lower the technical barrier.

Tips & Tricks: Changing of the standard format of classes is interesting and motivating for the students. Virtual patients are a tool to present authentic clinical scenarios which are appreciated by the students. A blend of role-play and virtual patients allows students to take advantages of the two methods to reach the learning objectives.

Target group: Medical students in year 2 and nursing students in year 3 across Europe

Learning units: Collaboration of Health Professions in Clinical Reasoning
Level: Intermediate

Description:
This learning unit was implemented with , aside from clinical reasoning, tow additional objectives: 1) providing internationalization experience for students without traveling. 2) Deepening the knowledge of one's own professional roles and responsibilities and knowledge of another profession .
Mode: Extra-curricular interprofessional learning session with international participants

Technical Integration: Self-registration on DID-ACT Moodle, synchronous sessions via zoom.

Tips & Tricks: Facilitators running this course and supporting the discussions should be careful about supporting and encouraging all the participating professions' perspectives.

Target group: Medical students in year 1 and 2 (preclinical) across Europe

Learning units: Introduction into Clinical Reasoning & Health profession roles in clinical reasoning
Level: Novice

Description: The course was offered as a blended learning module to students from different medical schools in Europe as an international elective. Synchronous phases were held online via Zoom. The international aspect was very motivating for students and they learnt a lot from each other by exchanging their perspectives and how they are taught clinical reasoning vaspects. This teaching mode could also be implemented as an activity to welcome or prepare new Erasmus students. Facilitairs were trained by attending the train-the-trainer learning unit on "Differences and similarities in clinical reasoning among health professions".
Mode: Elective course

Technical Integration: Self-registration on DID-ACT Moodle, synchronous sessions via zoom and use of Padlet for interactivities.

Tips & Tricks: The organization with the registration of students was a bit complex, so, we suggest just setting dates and let students book. Allow enough (more time) for discussion and introduction rounds as participants do not know each other and are eager to hear and learn from peers at other schools and countries. Ideally, this session could also be held interprofessionally, however, it makes the finding of suitable dates even more complex.

How to teach synchronously in a virtual setting

  • You need a reliable camera, microphone, and virtual platform and be familiar with its features, such as whiteboard, chat, polling, breakout rooms, etc.
  • At the beginning establish communication rules, e.g. whether participants should raise their (virtual) hand, use the chat, and/or just speak. Also, we recommend asking participants to turn on their camera
  • For small group work break out rooms work very well, just be clear about the tasks the groups should work on prior to dividing them into the groups.
  • For collaboration the use of integrated virtual whiteboards or other platforms such as Padlet are very useful. Just make sure prior to the session that you have everything setup and the links at hand, e.g. to post them in the chat.
  • Allow a bit more time for starting the session and the group works as there might be participants who are not familiar with the platform or technical problems might occur.

How to motivate unprepared participants

  • Make clear that the asynchronous assignments are a core part of the course and that its content will not be repeated. Even if it is difficult, stick to that when starting the synchronous teaching session.
  • If you expect unprepared participants, you can start the session with a student-centered group exercise mixing prepared and unprepared students to increase peer-pressure and make them realize that being unprepared does not feel good.  
  • Use the introductory or closing quizzes / tests so that participants can self- assess whether they have the required knowledge and you as a facilitator can see the level of knowledge and preparation of your participants.

Further recommended reading:

How to involve participants with different levels of experience

  • To account for such different levels, we recommend making use of the asynchronous preparatory phases which also include introductory quizzes in which participants can self-assess their prior knowledge and you as a facilitator can assess the differences within your group. Participants with less prior experience can also be guided to additional preparatory resources.
  • Encourage participants to work in pairs or small groups when preparing so that they can help and learn from each other. You could even facilitate this by dividing them into groups with different levels of experience.
  • Similarly, during the synchronous phases, we recommend forming groups with participants different levels of experience and emphasize the peer support aspects of such group activities.
  • We also recommend starting with rather smaller groups and allow more time than stated in the course outlines, if you expect a heterogenous level of experience. This way you can better manage this challenge.
  • Encourage your participants to ask questions, emphasizing that nobody knows everything and that it is important for learning to ask questions.  
  • Especially in the train-the-trainer course you might have to deal with over-confident participants, who especially in an interprofessional setting can dominate the group. This is a complex cultural challenge, but you could try to establish (and follow) communication rules at the beginning of a session.  

How to address potential overlaps or redundancies

  • Identify what is already included and what is missing in your curriculum related to clinical reasoning outcomes and compare it to the DID-ACT blueprint. Prioritize learning outcomes that are not yet covered but regarded as important.
  • Identify activities, resources, or teaching sessions with similar learning outcomes that might be in need for change anyway because of low evaluation results, teachers or students struggle with it. These could be suitable for adding or replacing parts with DID-ACT activities.
  • Ask teachers and students about overlaps and gaps they see in their teaching / learning of clinical reasoning and where they struggle. This could also be done by a reflection round after related teaching activities in the curriculum
  • Although ideally a longitudinal integration is aimed at, we recommend to starting small with a pilot implementation to gain experience and develop a show case.

How to teach in an interprofessional setting

  • Allow for enough time prior to the teaching for the organization and motivation / encouragement of stakeholders and participants
  • Allow for enough time and guidance during the course so that the participants from the different professions can get to know each other and their professions and discuss their different perspectives. This might mean that you need to calculate some extra time in addition to the suggested duration of the learning unit.
  • There may be a different understanding of clinical reasoning in the different health professions, so we recommend making participants aware of this. You could for example use and adapt activities from the learning units on the health profession roles to facilitate this.
  • Courses in an interprofessional setting should not come too early in the curriculum (not before professions have formed their own professional identity - however, this also depends on the aim of the course). 
  • Make sure you have enough participants from different professions. If possible, the facilitator could divide the participants in smaller groups with an equal distribution of professions. 
  • Similarly, you need an equal distribution of facilitators / facilitators from different professions.
  • Develop customized learning materials considering the different professions. If needed you can adapt the material and activities provided in the DID-ACT curriculum.

Further recommended reading:

van Diggele, C., Roberts, C., Burgess, A. et al. Interprofessional education: tips for design and implementation. BMC Med Educ 20, 455 (2020). (Link)

Theoretical / Background Knowledge

These resources and activities summarize all topics from the student learning units to introduce educators to these concepts. These resources are part of the train-the-trainer courses and marked as "optional" . Thus, they can be used optionally by course facilitators if participants are not yet familiar with basic concepts.

Theme(s): All basic concepts of clinical reasoning
Level: Educators
Format: Additional resources and material provided for each train-the-trainer learning unit that can be integrated if needed, e.g. if participants are quite new to the topic. These resources cover the basic concepts of a topic without going into the teaching aspects, so they can be used as preparatory steps.

Metacognition, reflection and models for reflection

Similar to the novice learning unit learners are asked to complete a reflective diary for five days. However, in this learning unit they should focus on critical or difficult situations in the clinical context.

Theme(s): Errors & biases
Level: Advanced
Format: Asynchronous online preparatory phase (ca. 60 min) with a synchronous follow-up meeting (ca. 60 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.07
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Ethical aspects - patient management and treatment

his learning unit provides an introduction into bioethical principles, consent, capacity, and ethical clinical reasoning.

Theme(s): Ethical Aspects
Level: Intermediate
Format: Asynchronous online preparatory phase (ca. 60 min) with a synchronous follow-up meeting (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.08
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Decision Support Systems

The learning unit includes the generation of a decision tree based on a breast cancer data set from radiology department using the RapidMiner software package and an elaboration of the concepts of sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, we will apply Bayesian reasoning and give an opportunity to discuss the base rate fallacy problem and the use of electronic calculators to judge the risk. The learning unit is finished with a discussion of the barriers/facilitators of using computers/AI in hospitals to support clinical reasoning.

Theme(s): Gathering, interpreting, and synthesizing information, Decision making
Level: Advanced
Format: Synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min) followed by an asynchronous phase (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.1
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Uncertainty

In this learning unit, the approach of practice inquiry will be introduced and applied.

Theme(s): Biases & errors
Level: Advanced
Format: Asynchronous online preparation (ca. 60 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 60 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.07
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Analyzing and avoiding errors

This learning unit will provide general and specific aspects of a morbidity and mortality conference and apply the knowlege by working through a case report.

Theme(s): Biases & errors
Level: Advanced
Format: Asynchronous online preparation (ca. 60 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.08
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Biases and cognitive errors

This learning unit introduces additional errors and biases and your will have the opportunity to work on virtual patients to identify error-prone situations.

Theme(s): Biases & errors, Ethical aspects, Theories of clinical reasoning
Level: Advanced
Format: Asynchronous online preparataion (ca. 60 min) for a follow-up synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.08
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Shared Decision Making in Clinical Reasoning

In this learning unit, learners will be familiarized or re-familiarized with the basic concept of shared decision-making (SDM) in a way that serves as a steping stone for how to implement key concepts and models into practice. A job aid on shared decision-making will be a takeaway from this learning unit.

Theme(s): Patient Perspective, Decision Making
Level: Intermediate
Format: Asynchronous online preparation (ca. 60 min) with a follow-up synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.08
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Collaboration of health professions in clinical reasoning

In this learning unit you will be able to apply interprofessional aspects of clinical reasoning and understand similarities and differences between the clinical reasoning of health professions. This facilitates a better communicate across professions in the clinical reasoning process to meet the needs of the patient.

Theme(s): (Interprofessional) Collaboration
Level: Intermediate
Format: Starting with two synchronous meetings (each 60 min or combined) followed by an asynchronous follow-up (ca. 60 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.1
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Decision Support Systems

The aim of this learning unit is to facilitate a discussion about which aspects of clinical reasoning can be supported by artificial intelligence and what the limitations of machines in clinical reasoning are.

Theme(s): Gathering, interpreting, and synthesizing information, Decision making
Level: Intermediate
Format: Synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min) with a follow-up asynchronous phase (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.1
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Evaluation of Clinical Reasoning

This learning unit provides an overview about surveys and questions suitable to evaluate clinical reasoning teaching. It also introduces the relevance of learning analytics.

Theme(s): Teaching clinical reasoning
Level: Educators
Format: Self-guided on-demand course with different material on clinical reasoning evaluation (ca. 60 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.03
Links: Course

Discussing and teaching about cognitive errors and biases

In this learning unit participating educators and clinicians will have the opportunity to share ideas on how a culture for discussing errors should look like. They will also learn more about most common errors and biases in clinical resoning and (teaching) strategies on how to avoid these. This learning unit supports educators in teaching the student courses on the novice level: Biases and cognitive errors, Uncertainty, and Analyzing & avoiding errors

Theme(s): Teaching clinical reasoning, Errors & biases, Theories of clinical reasoning, Ethical aspects
Level: Educators
Format: Asynchronous preparation (ca. 60 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min). Optional additional activities are provided for beginners (ca. 80 min).
Recommended ECTS: 0.08 (including optional phase: 0.13)
Links: Participant course - Facilitator resources

Information gathering, Generating differential diagonses, Decision making, and Treatment planning

This learning unit is designed to support educators in implementing the student courses on Collect and prioritize key clinical findings/problems, Generating differential diagnoses and deciding about final diagnosis, Developing a treatment plan, and Biomedical Knowledge and Clinical Reasoning

Theme(s): Teaching clinical reasoning, Gathering, interpreting & synthesizing information, Generating differential diagnoses, Developing a treatment / management plan, Decision making, Ethical aspects
Level: Educators
Format: Asynchronous preparation (ca. 60 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 60 min). Optional additional activities for beginners are available (ca. 60 min).
Recommended ECTS: 0.07 (including optional phase: 0.1)
Links: Participant course - Facilitator resources

Person-centred approach and the role of patients

This learning unit prepares educators to comprehensively and confidently teach the the learning unit on Person-centred approach to clinical reasoning. This unit will take educators through the learning content provided in the learning unit, as well as supports them in familiarizing themselves with the resources and exercises. Educators will have the opportunity to create their own teaching notes as part of this learning unit.

Theme(s): Teaching clinical reasoning, Patient perspective
Level: Educators
Format: Asynchronous preparation (ca. 60 min), followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min). Optional additional activites are available for beginners (ca. 100 min).
Recommended ECTS: 0.08 (including optional phases: 0.14)
Links: Participant course - Facilitator resources

Differences and similarities in clinical reasoning among health professions

This learning unit introduces teaching methods for clinical reasoning in different healthcare professions and prepares educators to teach the learning units on Health profession roles in clinical reasoning

Theme(s): Teaching clinical reasoning, (Interprofessional) collaboration
Level: Educators
Format: Asynchronous preparation (ca. 60 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 70 min). Optional additional activities provided for beginners (ca. 120 min).
Recommended ECTS: 0.07 (including optional phases: 0.14)
Links: Course,Facilitator resources

What is Clinical Reasoning and Models

This learning unit familiarizes healthcare profession educators on teaching aspects related to the clinical reasoning process and terminology of the different health professions. This includes how to explain the importance of clinical reasoning in the different health professions to students and how to support students in reflecting on clinical reasoning theories. The learning unit prepares you for teaching the novice courses on What is clinical reasoning, Dual Process Theory, Outcome Present State model, and Illness scripts.

Theme(s): Teaching clinical reasoning, Theories of clinical reasoning
Level: Educators
Format: Two synchronous meetings (ca. 60 and 45 min) with asynchronous phase (ca. 45 min) in between. Optional additional phase with ca. 45 min.
Recommended ECTS: 0.08 (including optional phase: 0.11)
Links: Course, Facilitator resources

Clinical Reasoning teaching and assessment

This learning unit provides and overview about teaching and assessment methods for clinical reasoning. It also highlights some general apsects, such as the importance of constructive alignment or how to organize group discussions.

Theme(s): Teaching clinical reasoning
Level: Educators
Format: Self-guided on-demand course with different material on clinical reasoning teaching and assessment.
Recommended ECTS: 0.03
Links: Course

DID-ACT clinical reasoning curriculum

This learning unit provides an overview about the DID-ACT student curriculum including all course outlines and resources neede to implement these learning units. It also introduces a tutorial on how to read the course outlines and use the provided resources.

Theme(s): Teaching clinical reasoning
Level: Educators
Format: Self-guided on-demand course with different material on our DID-ACT curriculum including all course outlines for student learning units and material needed.
Links: Course

Analyzing and avoiding errors

Along a case report this learning unit introduces the root cause analysis (RCA) to analyze errors and start to find ways for preventing / avoiding errors.

Theme(s): Errors & Biases
Level: Novice
Format: Asynchronous preparation (ca. 90 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 70 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.09
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Metacognition, reflection and models for reflection

In this learning unit reflection models will be introduced and self-reflection will be applied on form of a reflective diary.

Theme(s): Errors & biases
Level: Novice
Format: Synchronous meeting (ca. 60 min), followed by an asynchronous online phase (ca. 80 min) and a concluding synchronous meeting (ca. 80 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.12
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Uncertainty

The aim of this learning unit is to introduce situations of uncertainty and strategies that can be applied in such situations to avoid errors.

Theme(s): Errors & biases
Level: Intermediate
Format: Asynchronous preparation (ca. 60 min) followed by a synchronous session (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.08
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Biases and cognitive errors - an Introduction

This learning unit provides a basic introduction into the topic of biases and cognitive errors. It introduces a selection of common biases, such as premature closure or confirmation bias with providing the opportunity to elaborate on these biases with case vignettes.

Theme(s): Errors & biases, Theories of clinical reasoning, Ethical aspects
Level: Novice
Format: Asynchronous preparation (ca. 70 min) with a follow-up synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.09
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Developing a treatment plan

This learning unit provides an introduction into the topics "EBM in the context of clinical reasoning" and "developing a treatment/management plan" for students with no or some prior clinical experience.

Theme(s): Developing a treatment / management plan, Ethical aspects, Patient perspective
Level: Novice
Format: Asynchronous preparation (ca. 45 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 80 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.08
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Generating differential diagnoses and deciding about final diagnosis

This learning unit introduces different methods of creating and organizing differential diagnoses. There is also opportunity to practice the finding of differential diagnoses as well as discriminating and confining features on a prototypical case.

Theme(s): Generating differential diagnoses, Decision Making
Level: Novice
Format: Two synchronous meetings (ca. 90 min each) with an asynchronous phase in between (ca. 60 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.13
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Collect and prioritize key clinical findings/problems

This learning unit highlights how to collect and prioritize key clinical findings using case examples.

Theme(s): Gathering, interpreting & synthesizing information
Level: Novice
Format: Asynchronous preparatory phase (ca. 45 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 60 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.06
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Biomedical Knowledge and Clinical Reasoning - Knowledge Encapsulation

This learning unit explains the interconnection of biomedical knowledge and differential diagnoses formulation and explores different techniques to visualize encapsulated knowledge.

Theme(s): Theories of Clinical Reasoning
Level: Novice
Format: Two synchronous sessions (ca. 60 min each) with an asynchronous learning phase in between (ca. 45 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.09
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Person-centered approach to clinical reasoning

The goal of this learning unit is to define what a 'person perspective' is in the context of healthcare provision and highlight why it is important when providing a quality healthcare experience. Learners will also visit the definitions of biomedical information as well as recite the terminology "diagnostic and analysis" in a way that helps patients and their families understand this stage in healthcare provision. Lastly, learners will combine the above into practical ability using questions that promote support for families and patients using terminology that facilitates mutual understanding.

Theme(s): Patient perspective
Level: Novice
Format: A synchronous meetings (ca. 90 min), with a preparatory and a follow-up asynchronous phase (ca. 90 and 45 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.13
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Collaborate with others in clinical reasoning

This learning unit provides basic knowledge within different healthcare professions or across medical specialisations e.g. surgery, internal medicine and their collaboration with others in clinical reasoning.

Theme(s): (Interprofessional) Collaboration
Level: Advanced
Format: Asynchronous online preparation (ca. 60mins) for a follow-up synchronous meeting (ca. 90 mins)
Recommended ECTS: 0.08
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Health profession roles in clinical reasoning

This learning unit provides an introduction to the various health professions involved in health care on the subject of clinical reasoning. The unit has been developed for beginner and novice learners, and is appropriate for those who have and have not yet had extensive clinical experience due to the team aspect of the assessments. The learning unit will highlight varied professions ranging between physiotherapy, medicine, nursing, and occupational therapy and learners will be able to compare and contrast the definitions of clinical reasoning within said professions, as well as relate how this team-understanding fits into the broader picture of healthcare, with a goal to establish a common understanding and definition of 'clinical reasoning'.

Theme(s): (Interprofessional) Collaboration
Level: Novice
Format: Asynchronous preparatory phase (ca 45 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 90min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.08
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Using the Outcome Present State Test Model

This learning unit provides an introduction into the the Outcome-Presenter-State model for clinical reasoning, which is applied especially in nursing. The learning unit is designed for novices of all health professions who are at the beginning of their education.

Theme(s): Theories of Clinical Reasoning
Level: Novice
Format: Asynchronous preparation phase (ca. 80 min) with a follow-up synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.09
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Illness Scripts

This learning unit provides an introduction into scripts in general and more specifically into llness scripts for novices who are at the beginning of their education and do not have any prior knowledge or experience with illness scripts.

Theme(s): Theories of Clinical Reasoning
Level: Novice
Format: Two synchronous sessions (ca. 160 min) with an asynchronous learning phase (ca. 60 min) in between
Recommended ECTS: 0.12
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

Dual Process Theory

This learning unit provides an introduction into the dual processing theory amd highlights the differences between system 1 and system 2 reasoning.

Theme(s): Theories of Clinical Reasoning
Level: Novice
Format: Asynchronous preparation phase (ca. 90 min) followed by a synchronous meeting (ca. 90 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.1
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

What is clinical reasoning and how can theories be put into practice

This learning unit covers how clinical reasoning theories can be used/applied during beside teaching, internships or other patient-centered situations and why it is important to know these theories. It deepens the differences and similarities of clinical reasoning in the health professions, terminology used and importance of clinical reasoning.

Theme(s): Theories of Clinical Reasoning
Level: Intermediate
Format: Asynchronous preparation (ca. 45 min) for a follow-up synchronous meeting (ca. 60 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.07
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

What is Clinical Reasoning - An Introduction

This learning unit provides an introduction into the topic for novices who are at the beginning of their education and do not have any prior knowledge or experiences with clinical reasoning.

Theme(s): Theories of Clinical Reasoning
Level: Novice
Format: Synchronous meeting (60 min) followed by asynchronous follow-up (60 min)
Recommended ECTS: 0.07
Links: Student course - Facilitator resources

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