Students' Experiences With Real-Patient Tutorials in a Problem-Based Curriculum

Background: To bridge the gap between preclinical and clinical education that still exists in the problem-based medical school at Maastricht, tutorial groups in which clinicians guided and discussed students' interactions with real patients were introduced in the preclinical program. Purpose: To find out what students find instructive in these patient tutorial groups and how this should be interpreted in relation to the problem-based character of the curriculum. Methods: Two focus groups were composed of participants of the patient tutorial groups in 1996� 1997.They discussed relevant issues in two sessions and approved reports of the outcomes. Results and Conclusions: Students found the real-patient contact in the tutorials very valuable. They had not practiced taking a history to formulate and test a differential diagnosis with patients before. Problem-based tutorials with written cases were said to frequently lack depth of discussion. Individual contacts with simulated patients were found to be important in testing one' s own knowledge and skills.