Naïve physicians will need to be self-directed, active, life-long learners. As medical educators we strive to instill this curiosity and foster the development of these skills in our students in the beginning of their medical school journey. In this day of digital fluency where Millennials and Generation Z students are adept at instant messaging and social networking, how do we motivate our students to be curious, actively seek out information, and learn? Through the course of the workshop, participants will work in groups to identify learning objectives, and starting with a case outline, create a case that matches the learning objectives defined by them. An important component of this process is having basic science and clinical faculty work together to write/create clinical cases that can be used alone or as a supplement to lectures. Knowing how to write a case that engages both the students and faculty will be essential to everyone’s career, as medical schools move away from the traditional lecture and towards interactive learning approaches.

 

Educators are increasingly seeking ways to integrate basic and clinical sciences throughout the four years of undergraduate medical education, as medical education is moving away from the traditional two years of preclinical education followed by two years of clinical clerkships. One way of doing this is to use clinical cases that integrate basic and clinical sciences in several modalities including team-based learning (TBL), case-based learning (CBL) or problem-based learning (PBL). The outcomes of these modalities will depend on how actively students engage and learn using the cases. Therefore, the quality of the written cases, the clarity of learning objectives, and the learning environment created by the cases are important components in all of the modalities mentioned above. 

 

Case creation is greatly enhanced when authors work in a team, just as students’ learning is enhanced when they work in teams rather than as individuals. We will form groups for attendees to work in, based on the needs of their program/curriculum. We will use principles of case construction which are in use in four different medical schools in the US. Using these principles and our experiences, we will guide groups through the process of case writing, providing techniques and tools which we find to be very effective. We will provide a format for participants to actively create and discuss cases so that by the end of the workshop, they will have a fairly well-written scenario that is realistic and challenging. Participants will provide the educational and subject matter expertise. We will provide guidance in case writing so that elements of critical thinking, and principles and skills necessary for solving problems in heath and disease which are important for medical students’ education, are included in each case. We will wrap-up our session with an open forum discussion to address issues identified during the workshop. 

 

Our goals are to provide participants with methods to develop active learning cases which will encourage student discussion and collaboration.

 

Connect with Todd Nolan on twitter @toddanolan