Practical tips to improve bedside teaching using learning theories and critical reasoning

Abstract

Bedside teaching offers the opportunity to integrate the different professional roles and competencies of doctors and medical students with one another. It should not be delivered uniformly to all students but must be adapted to the level of experience of the students. Students at an early stage of their studies need a greater degree of structure and scaffolding than advanced students, as they may still feel insecure regarding a variety of factors. It therefore seems useful to take a closer look at the cognitive theories behind bedside teaching while bearing in mind that, in comparison to other teaching and learning formats, findings about emotion, epistemic beliefs, visual thinking strategies, theories of cognitive load, experiential learning and scripting, critical reasoning, structured briefing and debriefing can improve bedside teaching. This paper provides practical tips to reveal the processes of clinical reasoning and decision-making in a more rational, structured, analytical and critical manner.