Therapeutic Reasoning: A Conceptual Challenge for Medical Students’ Surgical Clerkship

Abstract

Issue: Medical students’ transition between pre-clinical and clinical environments can be jarring. Unclear expectations, disconnect between the pre-clinical and clinical environments, and feelings of exclusion from the team all negatively influence clerkship experiences. These difficulties are magnified on interventional-based clerkships due to the central role of therapeutic reasoning. Therapeutic reasoning is the process by which clinicians review and select treatments for their patients. Surgical therapeutic reasoning is challenging and infrequently addressed explicitly in the pre-clinical curriculum. This contributes to confusion among medical students as they transition from pre-clinical to clinical learning. Evidence: Multiple studies have identified challenges to medical students’ transition to clinical clerkships. Prior authors have outlined numerous barriers to successful medical student integration to clinical teams, including surgical teams. Studies that have assessed students’ perceptions of their transition to a clinical setting noted poor understanding of treatment decisions as a source of anxiety. Additionally, of particular importance to medical student team learning is their assimilation into the “communities of clinical practice,” groups of healthcare professionals who form teams with which students rotate. Surgeons have distinct approaches to the clinical process compared with non-interventionalists, particularly related to post-diagnostic involvement in care and performing diagnostic workup and treatment concurrently. Knowledge of these approaches is important for integration into surgical teams. Implications: An understanding of interventional therapeutic reasoning is critical to allow for medical students’ team integration on surgical and interventional clerkships. By incorporating education involving these concepts during the orientation period prior to students’ transition to surgical clerkships, we can help students modify traditional mental frameworks to effectively evaluate, present, and select appropriate interventions for patients. Such education should include a didactic introduction to therapeutic reasoning, interactive discussion with surgeons, and exercises for students to practice skills. This will maximize learning opportunities and clerkship experience.