Diagnosis and management of clinical reasoning difficulties: Part II. Clinical reasoning difficulties: Management and remediation strategies^*

Abstract

Part II of this AMEE Guide provides a detailed overview of the main difficulties in clinical reasoning, including the cues to look out for in clinical supervision, the root causes of each difficulty and targeted remediation strategies. Specific challenges and issues related to the management of clinical reasoning difficulties will also be discussed.

Notes on contributors

Marie-Claude Audétat M.Ps., MA (Ed), PhD, is a Clinical Professor in Family and Emergency Medicine at Université de Montréal, where she also served as Faculty Development Director, from 2010 to 2014. Since May 2014, she is in charge of the axis of educational research in the Primary Care Unit at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She is also involved in innovative projects regarding clinical reasoning and faculty development in the Unit of Development and Research (UDREM).

Suzanne Laurin MD, FCCFP is a family physician, an Associate Clinical Professor, and an educational leader in clinical reasoning at the Family and Emergency Medicine Department of Université de Montréal (Canada). She is also a visiting professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Liège (Belgium). She has extensive experience in clinical supervision, educational diagnosis and remediation and acts as an educational consultant and coach for the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Medicine teachers.

Valérie Dory, MD, MMedEd, PhD, is the Assessment and Evaluation Specialist for Undergraduate Medical Education, and Core Faculty at the Centre for Medical Education, McGill University. She trained as a general practitioner at Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. She completed a PhD on the self-assessment of general practice trainees at UCL, during which time she also obtained a Master's in Medical Education from University of Dundee.

Bernard Charlin, MD, PhD, is a Professor at the Department of Surgery at Université de Montréal. He trained as a head and neck surgeon in Montpellier, France. He holds a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University and a PhD in Education from the University of Maastricht. He is a member of CPASS (Center for Pedagogy Applied to Health Sciences). His research field is reasoning in the context of uncertainty (theory, acquisition, assessment). He has written or co-written more than 100 papers in the peer reviewed scientific literature.

Mathieu Nendaz, MD, MHPE is an internist at the Geneva University Hospitals and trained in health professions education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is presently Director of the Unit of Development and Research (UDREM) and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland. His research interests include Internal Medicine and Medical Education. In this field, he is particularly interested in decision-making, clinical reasoning, clinical supervision, and interprofessional issues.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.