So you can think of clinical learning as learning in action.
Right?
Where you have the learner with you in a clinical scenario, whether that's
in clinic or in the operating room, or in a home setting, etcetera.
So there's lots of strengths there.
There's lots of things that people learn
while being in the setting, and obviously its real world.
It has great application of their knowledge base.
In some ways, they're acting as an
apprentice, so they're learning our professionals or
ways and ways of communicating what we
had talked about before in Professional Identity Formation.
But, activities are going to be relevant to their future activities and so,
from an adult learning standpoint, it just makes more sense and it's more fun.
And one other thing that's very neat, is that we use
our patient as the pedagogy.
So, whatever the patient's issues are, are what we teach from.
And the patient can actually participate and help in teaching.
Now the weakness, obviously, we all know, is that there are time constraints.
So if you are in a very busy clinic, then it
can be very difficult to take, sort of time out, to teach.
Patient privacy is an issue.
Also, when we have a learner with us in clinics, sometimes we just don't
have any clear goals or objectives, we sort of, don't know what
we're doing, we didn't realize we had a learner with us that day.
And so, many of us as educators actually
feel under supported either with time or with space
[LAUGH]
or with sort of, understanding of, what are we
supposed to do when we have someone with us?
Unfortunately for the student, depending on the situation.
They just may be observing.
And so that's not necessarily learning in action or very effective.
And the situations can just be overwhelming for everyone involved.
For the patient who has to wait, for us, as instructors,
who are feeling sort of, you know, torn between seeing patients
and, and processing information, and creating
electronic medical records or paperwork or,
you know, there's 40 people in line to come to the clinic.
it can just be a lot.
So how do we help manage that?
Well, many, folks have heard about the one minute preceptor.
And let me just share that with you a for a second.
Basically, what happens is your student goes and sees a patient.
And then comes back and presents.
Correlate to you about what that patients situation is
so they can give you the history they can give
you the physical exam results, they may give you laboratory
results but the one thing that you want to do is
actually push them up booms taxonomy into sort of an
interpreter or an, an analysis phase, its basically getting a
commitment from them saying what is the diagnosis that this
patient has or what's your plan of what comes next.
So one of the question that I'll often ask is, so what do you want to do?,
or what do you think's going on?
And once you get that commitment from the
learner, then you need to probe for supporting evidence.
So, basically you're trying to figure out is this person, who
has said, well I think we should order this, this and this.
Know why they want to order those things, and what evidence are they using?
Once you know what they have you can also identify gaps in their knowledge.
And once you have the patient and the pieces together, the
diagnosis plan then you basically just want to teach general rules.
So sort of the take home points.
Like when I see a patient with this, I think this,
and I will often follow up with this or these exams.