Started during the DID-ACT project by a group of researchers the article “Clinical Reasoning Curricula in Health Professions Education: A Scoping Review” has been published recently in the Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development. Congratulations to the authors and members of the DID-ACT team Maria Elvén, Elisabet Welin, Desiree Wiegleb Edström, Tadej Petreski, Magdalena Szopa, Steve Durning, and Samuel Edelbring! The fulltext is available here:
The DID-ACT project officially ended at the end of 2022, so we are now wrapping up everything and starting to implement our longterm sustainability plans. Especially, we hope to be able to continue our wonderful collaboration and expand our network in the future. Please drop us a note if you are interested in joining – we are continuing to meet online on a regular basis and you are more than welcome to join us.
We will also continue to post news on this website and also on our LinkedIn page, so stay tuned to learn more about upcoming events and updates to the DID-ACT curriculum.
To help you getting started in using the DID-ACT resources, we have compiled a pdf leaflet, which you can download from the website.
A big Thank You to all partners, associate partners, and all others who supported this project and contributed their time in multiple ways – without you this project could not have been implemented!
During November, we are carrying out external review rounds of our student and train-the-trainer learning units. We hope for valuable feedback on the structure, content, and learning & assessment activities to further improve our DID-ACT curriculum.
Interested to provide feedback?
Please, log into our Moodle platform (link) – if you do not yet have an account you can easily create one. Then, choose any theme or learning unit you are interested in and please provide us with your feedback either by filling out a short questionnaire or leaving a comment to this post.
We are very excited about our different activities planned for the upcoming AMEE conference in Lyon (and also online) from August 27th – 31st 2022.
DID-ACT partners from Poland, Sweden, Slovenia, USA, Germany, and Switzerland will be present and the AMEE program includes the following topics and slots related to the DID-ACT project:
Topic
Time
Presenter
Session
Teaching clinical reasoning toolkit: Understanding, developing and implementing a clinical reasoning curriculum
Saturday Aug 27th 9:30 - 12:30
Monika Sobocan and DID-ACT partners
Pre-conference workshop (PCW L1)
Pilot implementation and evaluation of clinical reasoning train-the-trainer courses by the European project DID-ACT
Monday Aug 29th 8:00 - 9:30
Andrzej Kononowicz
Short communication
Developing a virtual patient collection to train clinical reasoning
Monday Aug 29th 8:00 - 9:30
Inga Hege
Short communication
Needs regarding teaching and assessment of clinical reasoning: An international mixed-methods study
Monday Aug 29th 18:30 - 20:00
Felicitas Wagner
Short communication (online)
Teaching methods for clinical reasoning - an overview for clinicians and educators
Tuesday Aug 30th 14:30 - 16:00
Melina Körner
EPoster
Comparison of person’s perspective attitudes after a virtual patient activity and role-plays of students - a prospective control-group randomized study
TDB
Michał Pers
Short Communication
You can find more information about AMEE including the program at the AMEE website
On May 30th the DID-ACT team met for our third hybrid project meeting in the beautiful city of Maribor in Slovenia.
We started the day by celebrating our achievements so far, which include the completing of our learning units including piloting and evaluation, a wide range of dissemination activities, and the expansion of our network.
We then discussed the remaining deliverables for the upcoming seven months including the refinement of the student courses, the development of a certificate for the train-the-trainer courses, the finalization of the integration guideline, and the development of a sustainability model and long-term integration plans at our institutions.
celebrating our achievementsVisit to the simulation center
To further work on the integration guideline, we split into three small groups and discussed recommendations for three main challenges we came across during our pilot implementations:
How to teach in an interprofessional setting
How to address potential overlaps of the DID-ACT courses with the local curriculum
How to deal with different levels of experience of participants
We summarized our results on Padlet and will integrate these recommendations into the guideline. Similarly, we worked in smaller groups on the development of a business canvas as part of the DID-ACT sustainability model. We will continue our work on this during our next planned project meeting in Kraków, Poland.
We concluded the day with a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant in the center of Maribor.
While developing the DID-ACT learning unit about cognitive errors and biases, we came across the this great video on YouTube by Dr. Joanna Kempner about gender biases and the underrepresentation of especially women of color in healthcare. Stereotypes are still deeply incorporated into our culture and as Dr. Kempner illustrates they are still visible in (medical) advertisement, healthcare institutions, or workplaces. Although women have finally been included into clinical trials in the 1990s in the US, funding for diseaseas that are more prevalent in women is still very low, which also results in less or lower quality treatment. For more information and details, we highly recommend the video by Dr. Kempner:
Just before the holiday season, we finalized a couple of interesting deliverables, reports, and updates.
Most importantly we completed the development of the DID-ACT train-the-trainer courses on clinical reasoning. Overall, eight learning units are available in our learning platform moodle including comprehensive information and documents for future course facilitators. The course development was accompanied with pilot testing of learning units with participants from partner-, associate-, and external institutions. On our website we provide a summary of these pilots and the extensive results of the evaluation activities. These results will inform the refinements of the train-the-trainer courses we will start implementing in January 2022.
We also repeated our Social Network Analysis and published the results including our website and learning management platform hits in this updated summary.
We wish you all peaceful holidays and a happy New Year!
In this blog post we would like to point another Erasmus+ funded project “iCoViP” – International collection of virtual patients. This strategic partnership with participants from Poland, Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal aims to create a well-designed high-quality collection of virtual patients to train clinical reasoning. Other than DID-ACT, iCoViP focuses specifically on the training of medical students by providing opportunities to identify symtpoms and findings, develop differential diagnoses, document tests and treatment options, and decide about the final diagnosis.
Screenshot of a virtual patient in CASUS
The project started in April 2021 and continues until March 2023. As a first stept the consortium develops a blueprint that describes the virtual patients based on key symptoms, final diagnosis, and (virtual) patient-related data, such as age, sexual orientation, disability, profession, etc. This approach ensures that the collection is a realistic representation of a real-world patient collective.
More information about the project can be found at icovip.eu
For the development of the DID-ACT’s online clinical reasoning curriculum we will be following the six step Kern cycle for curriculum development. Kicking off our third and fourth work package in January 2021 signalled the start for detailed planning and development of learning units. As of now, we have started with 4 units, but based on our curricular framework, we will be developing a total of 40 learning units. These units will be aligned with a collection of case scenarios and virtual patients. Together, these will allow for interprofessional and deliberate practice of clinical reasoning.
We started this process by providing an exemplary learning unit (“What is clinical reasoning – an introduction”) and a template for describing a learning unit. We then divided into smaller teams to develop the first four learning units on different clinical reasoning-related theories in parallel. Each team includes partners from different health professions across Europe. Each team has varying levels of expertise, ranging from students to experienced clinicians or educators. The diversity of knowledge and experience are key elements for developing a clinical reasoning curriculum that reflects the various needs of health professions across Europe and beyond.
Upon completion of each learning unit, each unit will be reviewed within our team and by associate partners. The units will then be revised accordingly and implemented into Moodle, our learning management system, using available OERs. We will create new resources ourselves, if needed. After a final review, all learning units will be made publicly available to be freely used by students and educators.
Pilot implementations
We will pilot selected learning units from the student curriculum and the train-the-trainer course within our partner institutions during the summer and fall 2021. The evaluation results of course participants and facilitators will be the basis for further refinements of our clinical reasoning curriculum. For that purpose, we aim to include at least 500 students and 50 educators.
As part of the DID-ACT project we conducted over 40 interviews with educators, students and clinical reasoning experts asking them among other questions, what barriers they see for developing a clinical reasoning curriculum for students and a train-the-trainer course for teachers. Interestingly, one of the most important barriers mentioned by the interviewees were cultural barriers. This includes aspects such as a lack of collaboration among educators, no culture of reflection, no culture of dealing with errors, and a resistance to change. A second category of barriers was related to the teaching process. Interviewees identified obstacles such as a lack of awareness that clinical reasoning can be taught, a lack of qualified educators to teach students, and also a lack of guidance and standards on how to teach clinical reasoning.
The results of the interviews can be found in the D1.1b report.
As already started in our ideation workshop we are now discussing solutions to overcoming these barriers – the results will be published by the end of June!
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.
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:
Hege I, Tolks D, Adler M, Härtl A. Blended learning: ten tips on how to implement it into a curriculum in healthcare education. GMS J Med Educ. 2020;37(5):Doc45. (Article)
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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) RecommendedECTS: 0.07 Links: Student course - Facilitator resources
