A new approach to bridging content gaps in the clinical curriculum

Abstract

Background: In 2004-05 Tulane University School of Medicine implemented a longitudinal Interdisciplinary Seminar Series composed of small-group interactive exercises to address topics that are often overlooked during the clinical education of medical students. The series utilizes five adult learning principles. Methods: Each of 13 seminars is offered at a fixed time slot, repeated two to six times per year. Students are required to attend a minimum of five seminars, of their choice, during years three and four. Students access an online pre-enrollment system that maximizes learning opportunities by limiting the number of participants. Seminars emphasize active learning with small-group problem-solving exercises and multiple interactive techniques. Clinical vignettes, standardized patients, journal articles, and casebased learning are among the learning methods. Results: Seminar evaluations showed strong support in program content and effectiveness (mean ¼ 4.47 on a five-point scale), facilitators (4.63), and learning opportunities (4.51). Additionally, students strongly endorsed individual seminars to classmates (4.47). Twelve of 13 (92%) seminars received scores higher than 4.0 for program content and effectiveness, facilitators and learning opportunities. Conclusions: The Interdisciplinary Seminar Series has been a valuable addition to the Tulane clinical curriculum. Students report that the success of the series is due to: (a) their ability to select seminars based on their individualized interests and needs; and (b) faculty development of student-centered seminars with active learning opportunities. This Seminar Series differs from interclerkship initiatives at other medical schools where topics are offered less frequently and to a class as a whole. Tulane's program is a longitudinal intervention with multiple opportunities for student participation during their clinical education. Seminars are repeated to allow greater flexibility in student scheduling. Seminar discussions are rich in content since attendees include both third-and fourth-year students with variable levels of clinical skills and experiences.

Case-Based Learning and its Application in Medical and Health-Care Fields: A Review of Worldwide Literature

“…CBL is used to impart knowledge in various fields in health care and various fields of medicine. The findings in this review showed that articles demonstrated the use of CBL in medicine, 2 , 4 – 7 , 9 , 10 , 12 – 14 , 18 – 21 , 24 – 26 , 30 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 37 , 39 – 44 , 46 , 48 – 62 , 64 – 67 dentistry, 8 , 15 , 16 , 22 , 23 , 28 pharmacology, 11 , 27 , 29 , 35 , 45 , 63 occupational and physical therapy, 31 ...…”

Medical students’ perceptions towards implementing case-based learning in the clinical teaching and clerkship training

“…It can also build a conceptual bridge between theory and practice [2] and has assisted students in getting ready for and doing well on clinical exams [1]. Encourages active learning and yields more beneficial results [7,8].…”

“…CBL is an active learning technique similar to problembased learning that involves small groups and focuses on solving a given problem. It stimulates active learning and produces a more fruitful outcome [7,8]. While PBL encourages students to acquire foundational knowledge as part of the clinical case investigation, CBL is effective for students who have already acquired this knowledge [9].…”

Inductive teaching method–an alternate method for small group learning

“…Small group interactive teaching has found an increasing role in medical education in the recent past (Vernon & Blake 1993;Jaques 2003;McParland et al 2004;Landry et al 2007;Srinivasan et al 2007). Some studies have found small group tutorials which have mainly been studied in the context of problem-based learning (PBL), to be superior to traditional lectures for deep learning, creating favourable student attitudes and performance in clinical examinations (Vernon & Blake 1993;Albanese 2000;McParland et al 2004).…”