Teaching for thinking in clinical education: Making explicit the thinking involved in allied health clinical reasoning

Abstract

Abstract: Aim: This study had two main aims: to make explicit some of the thinking involved in allied health clinical reasoning and then to reframe this thinking so it is easier for clinical educators to teach and assess and for students to master. Background: Clinical reasoning is central to health professional practice. Therefore, there has been much research to identify the complex thinking process involved in clinical reasoning. There has been less examination, however, of effective approaches for teaching students how to access and adopt the thinking processes that have been identified. Methods: Our survey asked a group of experienced allied practitioners to identify some of the questions they pose to themselves when thinking about a challenging patient scenario and then to reformulate those questions for students to use when engaging in similar clinical reasoning. We categorised their questions according to their fit with established processes of clinical reasoning. Results and conclusion: The questions identified by participants align with established processes of clinical reasoning. They can be used by clinical educators as scaffolds to enable students to think and reason like expert clinical practitioners and used by students to practice and eventually master clinical reasoning.