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CLIME Grand Rounds: Best Practices, Real Limits – Teaching Clinical Reasoning in Busy Curricula
CLIME Grand Rounds: Best Practices, Real Limits – Teaching Clinical Reasoning in Busy Curricula
Sandra Monteiro, PhD
Dr. Sandra Monteiro is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Education and Innovation and a MERIT Scientist in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. She also serves as Director of Simulation Scholarship at the Centre for Simulation-Based Learning. Her early research challenged the belief that analytical thinking prevents diagnostic errors, demonstrating instead that increased thinking time sometimes introduces mistakes. She has since highlighted the limits of individual responsibility in error prevention, advocating for systemic approaches to support clinicians. Currently, she applies cognitive and behavioral science to examine how discrimination affects clinical reasoning, advancing equity in health professions education and healthcare.
Date & Time:
Friday, March 13, 2026
12:00 – 1:00 PM PT
Location: Zoom (Link will be in registration email)
Registration: https://uw.cloud-cme.com/course/courseoverview?P=0&EID=14157
Best Practices, Real Limits: Teaching Clinical Reasoning in Busy Curricula
What is the most effective way to teach clinical reasoning?
A question that has inspired more than 5 decades of research examining theories about what clinical reasoning is, how we should assess it, what factors affect a correct or incorrect diagnosis, and how we should stage learning about different content, such as basic science and clinical symptoms, or social determinants of health. A common frustration in translating and applying research findings is the limited time to build in “best practices” in clinical teaching in the classroom, or during clerkship. Another enduring challenge is balancing the expectations that learners must master foundational medical knowledge, implying a need for certainty, while also developing an openness to ambiguity, implying acceptance of uncertainty; for medical students this tension is heightened as they move into clerkship, while medical residents must learn techniques to navigate patients’ expectations of certainty. Given the vast scholarship on this topic, there is additional uncertainty for clinician educators and curriculum planners. In this talk, I emphasize the pragmatic side of clinical reasoning scholarship, with a focus on feasibility, acceptability and validity. I start with a view to cognitive psychology theories of how people learn, to facilitate a deeper understanding of the most common recommendations to come out of education research. With these tools, we can then evaluate how these strategies fit into a standard undergraduate or post-graduate curriculum. The intended audience for this talk are clinician educators seeking strategies to enhance their teaching practice. By the end of this talk, attendees will be able to link popular ‘best practice’ recommendations with theories of cognition.
Accreditation with Commendation: The University of Washington School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Credit Designation:The University of Washington School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 4 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.(Each session is worth 1 credit).