Patient-Based Teaching: A Clinical Instructional Method for Large Classrooms

Abstract

Recently, medical schools have begun increasing the amount of problem-based teaching, which gives students the opportunity to apply a database in a simulated clinical setting. This exercise helps them incorporate principles of diagnosis and treatment into their procedural memory. Although problem-based teaching has great educational benefits, it poses a unique challenge. It is extremely labor-intensive, because until now it has been assumed that patient-based teaching can only be done in small groups, requiring a large number of faculty to moderate group seminars. In today’s economic climate, with difficulty in recruiting sufficient faculty, having an alternative to small-group teaching has potential advantages. Here, the authors describe the process of developing principles of problem-based teaching from small groups into an instructional method for a large-group setting for a large clinical neuroscience course using patient-based sessions.