Discussion of clinical cases as a methodological tool to enhance practice: a report of teaching experience
John ADIE and Andrew MAY
Clinical skills and competencies are fundamental for strengthening Primary Health Care (PHC), but they require structured training. This teaching experience report addresses the use of clinical case discussions through the SOAP (Subjective-Objective-Assessment-Plan) and SNAPPS (Summarize-Narrow-Analyze-Probe-Plan-Select) tools, in addition to structured feedback, within a primary care specialization program in Brazil.Forty clinical case presentations brought by the students during class were analyze. The students used the SOAP and SNAPPS methodologies to organize their clinical reasoning and presentation. After each presentation, structured feedback was provided using the Preceptor-Minute technique, which follows five established steps to ensure good clinical discussions and improve learning.It is a rich experience in clinical case discussion with a pre-established structure for strengthening clinical reasoning, presentation, and feedback in a large-scale public health training program for providing physicians for Primary Health Care in Brazil.It was possible to observe that the students initially had difficulty understanding and applying the structured method of presentation. After the first few presentations, the students felt more confident and showed an improvement in the organization of their thought process and reasoning, as well as in their receptivity to feedback. The focus should be on structured methodologies with feedback to ensure high-quality training.The results suggest that although some of the students were able to report the cases, they lacked an adequate technique for discussion, presentation, and receiving feedback. This experience was important for the students to identify their knowledge deficits, improve their practice, and offer better health care for their patients.The use of a specific methodology, which includes tools that adequately structure clinical reasoning, case presentation, and discussion, made it possible to clearly perceive which clinical skills each student needed to improve, demonstrating that the learning process must be combined with effective teaching and learning techniques.
