Objectives | PBL Process | Evaluation | Contact

Objectives

the objectives of the course are:

• To introduce the student to some clinical problems
• To build medical vocabulary
• To introduce the student to the process of clinical case analysis
• To seek an understanding of the pathophysiological basis of the symptoms and signs in these patients
• To introduce them to the techniques of PBL
• To convince them that learning significant information from the preclinical years will help them in later years
• To provide the motivation to be effective medical practitioners.

The PBL Process

Each case in the course is discussed over a two week period in 4 x 2 hour sessions. Six cases are covered in a semester. The process begins with a written protocol describing the patient's presentation (5 - 12 lines) which is distributed "cold" to the students at session 1. They are asked to consider this protocol with the view to identifying the important pieces of information in it. They then spend 3-5 minutes in "buzz groups" discussing these issues. Information is then shared with the large group. Students are invited to explain any new terminology introduced and I provide vocabulary for terminology as it arises. Data points, hypotheses, additional questions and learning issues are identified as they arise.

When this process is complete, students elect to explore the learning issues they wish to examine in more detail, either singly or in a cooperative manner prior to the next class. At the next meeting, the summary of the previous discussion is reviewed. The students begin by sharing their findings in buzz groups with spokespersons reporting to the large group. New observations and hypotheses are added to the data and students are invited to comment on these or to offer alternative suggestions/explanations. This completed they are invited to consider, in their groups the state of play. What now? More information from the patient? Review of the hypthoses? New learning issues?

By session 4 students come prepared to provide explanations for the physical signs and to talk about specific diagnoses and differential diagnoses.

Assessment is given in the form of an ungraded pass/fail. An end-of-Semester exam draws on the knowledge derived from the clinical cases discussed during the course. The focus of the exam, like the course, is not on the correct answer but the reasoning process involved.

Evaluation

The initiative is being evaluated through both a questionnaire and one-on-one interviews with a randomly selected person from each small working group. The course is an evolving process, so this feedback is important.

Contact
This project has been devised and run by Ted Cleary with assistance in the evaluation from Ray Peterson.

Dr Ray Peterson can be contacted on:

Tel: +61 8 303 6063
Fax: +61 8 303 3788
E-mail: rpeterson@medicine.adelaide.edu.au