A Team-based Learning Approach During Pediatric Clerkship to Promote Clinical Reasoning

• Published in: Academic pediatrics 2023-09, Vol.23 (7), p.1459-1464
• Main Authors: Forbes, Karen L., Foulds, Jessica L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: clinical reasoning; formative assessment; team-based learning
• ISSN: 1876-2859; 1876-2867
• DOI: 10.1016/j.acap.2023.04.002

Clinical reasoning skills are essential to medical practice. The problem lies in assuming junior medical students with limited experience develop clinical reasoning and decision-making skills passively and solely through clinical exposure. To prepare learners for independent practice and care for future patients, explicit teaching and assessment of clinical reasoning in low-stakes, collaborative learning environments are needed. The key-feature question (KFQs) format is an assessment approach that focuses on the reasoning and decision-making aspects of medical problems rather than knowledge recall. This report describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a team-based learning (TBL) approach using KFQs to foster clinical reasoning in the third-year pediatric clerkship at our institution. Over the first 2 years of implementation (2017–18, 2018–19), 278 students participated in TBL sessions. Mean individual student scores significantly improved in the group setting for both academic years (P