Developing a clinical presentation curriculum in veterinary education: a cognitive perspective

Abstract

There is a discrepancy between the knowledge of veterinary medicine graduates and professional and society expectations. The main reason for this discrepancy is the conventional curricula, which rely on backward reasoning or disease-centered medical education. The aim of the present study was to develop a scheme as the most important step in the creation of a full clinical presentation (CP) module. Vomiting was chosen in this study as a common CP in dogs. Three series of focused questions were developed. The physiological mechanisms (visceral, cortical, vestibular, metabolic, and chemical) were chosen to reconstruct the top layer of the scheme. To reconstruct the second and third layers of the scheme, anatomical concepts were applied to define the subcategories. To design the fourth layer, the disease classes which result in vomiting in each of the physiological schemes were considered. We believe that introducing “vomiting in dog” to veterinary medical students as a leading presentation meets the students' requirements because it uses clinical presentations as the organizing core structure.