Making the most of clinical conference courses: Adding a “pair and share” element to prompt student engagement and reflection
by Cynthia J. Brame
I recently had the opportunity to watch Janelle Delle, Assistant Professor of Nursing, run one of the clinical conferences that she has with small groups of students every week. The point of a clinical conference course is to help students make sense of and learn from their ongoing clinical experiences, a key part of developing as a health care practitioner. Janelle says that typically, clinical conferences consist of students presenting a deidentified patient to the other members of the group, talking through the clinical decisions they faced and why they made the choices they did.
This year, Janelle wanted to develop a way for all the students to think through those clinical decisions, not just the student who is presenting. She therefore made a small tweak to how things go in class: the presenting student writes the key information, such as the patient’s history of present illness, past medical history, and key lab and vital sign findings, on the digital whiteboard and then orally describes the clinical situation. The other students in the class then work in pairs, filling out a patient information form using this template, identifying what goals they would have for the patient, and prioritizing those goals, skills that Janelle says are essential for their work as nurses.
When I observed, students asked Janelle and the presenting student questions lots of questions during the pair work, such as, “Is that the preferred treatment? Is this an appropriate drug given the patient’s history?” Janelle also has the students discuss how lab and vital sign trends may impact patient presentation along with the focus of the treatment plan for the shift. The segment concludes with the presenting student telling the others what their priorities were and why, discussing any differences that arose, along with evaluating patient intervention and clinical reflection, considering what worked, what didn’t, and what can be done differently next time to achieve a positive outcome.
The day I visited, the students were deeply engaged with the cases that were presented, asking great questions, demonstrating critical thinking skills, applying their own clinical experience to the case, and preparing to take their learning from the case back to the hospital with them. Janelle said that this modification—the addition of the “pair and share” to the student presentation—has been a game changer in terms of the value the students get out of the clinical conference. Based on what I saw, I can easily believe it. So much power in asking students to consider questions they care about with colleagues they trust!
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