The Pre-Clinical Pace: Using Cases for Early Learners

April 30, 2020

By: Sherilyn Smith, MD | Clinical Skills Learning Specialist | University of Washington | Aquifer Chief Academic Officer

If you want to use Aquifer cases as a clinical correlate in basic sciences classes just assign one case per week (e.g. pediatric case about cystic fibrosis in a genetics course; internal medicine case about anemia in hematology course). Students at UW have told me that this is about the right number of cases because the case content is complicated for early students. Students can work independently through the case and you can use it as context for discussion about how the basic science helps explain the clinical presentation–getting to the “why” behind how patients present as they do!