Clinical reasoning training sessions for health educators-A scoping review

OBJECTIVES: Clinical reasoning (CR) is important in health professions, because it ensures patient safety and decreases morbidity. CR should be introduced early in medical school. Health educators play a major role in advocating for the use of CR among students; however, educators themselves can be a barrier to the incorporation of CR; consequently, CR training sessions for educators have been proposed as a potential solution. This scoping review was conducted to highlight studies on CR training among health educators.

METHODS: A scoping review was performed to identify studies on CR training sessions for health educators. PubMed, SciVerse Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, EBSCO Medline Complete and ERIC databases were searched with terms including clinical reasoning, diagnostic reasoning, teacher and trainer, to identify articles published between 1991 and 2021.

RESULTS: The initial search yielded 6587 articles; after careful selection, n = 12 articles were included in this scoping review. Most CR training sessions were in the medical field, were conducted in North America, and involved clinical educators. The sessions focused on the fundamentals and steps of CR; biases and debiasing strategies; and learners' difficulties with various teaching formats, such as didactic presentations, facilitated small group sessions with case discussions, roleplay, and use of tools and a mobile application. Educators and students had positive perceptions regarding the conduct and effectiveness of the training sessions.

CONCLUSIONS: These training sessions were rated highly; however, longitudinal feedback regarding the application of learnt CR teaching strategies is necessary.