Integrated Cases Section: a course designed to promote clinical reasoning in year 2 medical students.

BACKGROUND

Medical students often have difficulty applying basic science knowledge within clinical contexts as they transition into clerkships.

DESCRIPTION

To enhance clinical reasoning skills in 2nd-year medical students, we developed a 7-week transition course called the Integrated Cases Section. Curricular instruction incorporated analytic and nonanalytic clinical reasoning models. Practice with variable case scenarios enhanced students' application of basic science knowledge to clinical problem solving.

EVALUATION

We evaluated curricular design and objectives by measuring student perceptions during the course and following completion of 2 clerkship rotations. To obtain measurement of students' clinical reasoning ability we administered a script concordance test immediately before and after the course.

CONCLUSIONS

Students reported increased confidence in their diagnostic reasoning ability during the course and after completion of 2 clerkships. Students' clinical reasoning showed a significant gain after the Integrated Cases Section on a script concordance test. Student support has solidified Integrated Cases Section in the curriculum.