A new approach to preparing students for academic medicine

Critical thinking and self-directed learning by students are goals strongly endorsed by medical educators. Teaching medical interviewing and physical diagnosis skills is one of the most important tasks in medical school. An elective for fourth-year students was designed to address both areas. Ten senior medical students spent one month with a teaching staff member and fellow in general medicine. Part of the course was designed for independent problem-solving posed by sophisticated medical problems encountered in a general medicine practice. Skills in problem formulation, reading and assessing the medical literature, and communicating with peers were learned or improved. In the remainder of this course five pairs of senior students precepted 28 randomly chosen second-year students and taught medical interviewing and physical diagnosis. Techniques of teaching and basic pathophysiology were reviewed, and role-playing, feedback, demonstration and role-modelling were used.