Development of a Self‐assessment Tool to Help Students Develop Metacognitive and Critical Reasoning Skills During High‐fidelity Medical Physiology Simulations

Abstract

The UCF College of Medicine M.D. curriculum includes a 16‐week Structure and Function module in the first year in which students learn basic medical physiology. The module includes five high‐fidelity simulations that require students to apply physiological knowledge to develop treatment plans in acute care situations. Students work collaboratively in teams of six in a 15 min period to complete a simulation exercise, each of which is followed by debriefs on physiological reasoning and the effectiveness of team process. Past experience has shown that student teams often struggle to identify and organize information and to reach a group consensus about treatment. In this study we developed a survey tool for students to use during a simulation that provides a framework to organize thinking to decision making. The instrument was deployed on an iPad and required each student to first identify sources of information, to list problems requiring attention, to prioritize the problem list and to make a note of physiological rationale. Students could then discuss as group before proceeding to treatment decisions. Each item was followed by a self‐rating of confidence on a 7‐point Likert scale. Eighty out of 120 students gave informed consent for their data to be included in this IRB‐approved study. The most common errors were omission of key information, misconceptions of physiology and over‐treatment of the patient. Despite the prevalence of error students showed high levels of confidence, demonstrating an over‐confidence bias in their decision making. In conclusion the tool shows promise as a way to identify misconceptions in physiology and to reflect on errors in critical reasoning and decision making.Support or Funding InformationUCF College of Medicine, Medical Education GrantThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.