One of the highlights of our program’s curricula is the emphasis on clinical reasoning.  Clinical reasoning is a unifying theme of all that we teach here at the University of Iowa.  But clinical reasoning takes the spotlight during clinical reasoning week, where Dr. Suneja (our program director) and company take a deep dive into the inner workings of the thought processes of master clinicians.  We discuss the nuts and bolts of problem representation and how to form an effective assessment.  We then use that problem representation and show how that interacts with frameworks, which ultimately lead to a differential diagnosis.  We also discuss cognitive bias and how clinicians are continuously learning and incorporate this new information into their thought processes.

Topics covered include

• “Clinical Reasoning: Thinking of blinking”
• “Speaking the same language and steps to clinical reasoning”
• “Clinical Reasoning: Novice to Expert”

Additionally, the primary focus of Morning Report, Master Clinician Rounds, Framework Friday’s, and Master Clinician Mystery Case series is clinical reasoning.  All of these experiences work together to develop our residents clinical reasoning skills over their three years of residency.