Clinical Vignettes

• A 24 year old medical student presents with a complaint of feeling overwhelmed in preparation for an exam in three days, feels isolated from peers (all of whom study individually), finds lectures boring, and small groups not helpful except when the “answers” are given right away-forget the “discussion” which is dominated by the “gunners.”
  

• A 46 year old associate professor of medicine presents with complaint of exasperation in teaching clinical pharmacology because the students, though bright enough, never seem to come prepared and ready to be challenged – they just want answers.
  

• A 51 year old professor/course director complains of fatigue from having to beg clinical faculty to teach small groups and feels hopeless about getting these faculty to all teach from “the same page” if they do show up, plus students only like some of the faculty and these few faculty get huge groups!
  

• A “39” year old associate dean for Med Ed presents with complaint of too many complaints from faculty about students not coming to lecture, small groups are poorly attended and students don’t ALL participate, and that “Socratic” teaching isn’t happening. Plus clerkship directors complain that students take too long to learn how to work within teams.