Ground rules for discussion – to keep us listening to the group as a whole
 Don’t need permission to talk/ no need to raise your hand
 Listen closely to the group
 We might encourage you to talk (‘cold call’) but don’t feel pressure to have
something witty to say (then you won’t be able to pay attention to the
discussion) share whatever comes to mind based on what the last person
said
Barbara, course director, meets with Pieter, new teacher for this course, two
weeks before he’ll be teaching his session.
Barbara: Pieter, I'm so glad you’ll be coming to teach the students in our small
group session on congestive heart failure & thanks for swinging by to fill me in on
your plans.
Pieter: My pleasure, Barbara.
Barbara: I wanted to share with you our goals for the session. We’re trying to
help the students improve their own clinical reasoning and analytical skills (for
example interpreting clinical data or research articles) – the group has been a
place where we help refine their clinical acumen, help them organize disparate
information and connect the pathophysiology to the care of individual patients.
Pieter: That sounds great & really ties in nicely to what I’ve been planning.
Barbara: Super, do you mind giving me a sense of what you’re planning?
Pieter: The students don’t really know much – what year did you say they were?
[don’t wait for answer] – anyway, they really haven’t seen much & if they did see
a patient with CHF, they had no idea what was happening.
So, I’ve found what works really well is to get everyone on the same page -give them the key information in a way that they can digest it.
So, I think back to when I took care of my first CHF patient. I didn’t have
any idea what to do – so I needed to first start organizing it in my head – what
type of heart failure, what are the goals of treatment (see, I'm thinking back to my
med school days) – I think that’s the best way to get them oriented – you know,
give them a scaffolding.
Barbara: That sounds thoughtful…
Pieter: So, using this scaffolding – my structure of thinking-- I’ve got my 60 to
70 slides – they really don’t know much so they need a lot of teaching – that is
generally perfect for the hour and a half.
Barbara: I see.
Pieter: The residents love it – they can just sit there & afterwards – [snap] -they really have a great grasp of CHF. I’ve never had any complaints.