Case Writing and Its Use in Medical Education

Abstract

By its nature, the medical problems are ambiguous and encountered in different ways. For physicians, their solution is a complex phenomenon and physicians reach diagnosis and treatment decisions by using different reasoning methods. Case-based reasoning is one of these, and is attracting attention as an important area of today's medical education. Clinical reasoning researches of Barrows and Tamblyn emphasized that students were more eager to learn and learn better when solving problems of patients. That evidence has placed case-based learning at the center of medical education activities. Cases cited by trainers from patient files or their past experiences initially used in bedside practices and lectures. These techniques often aim to appeal and draw attention; however over time they were also used for various purposes in different areas of the curriculum. Among these, standardized/simulated patients, virtual patients, problem-based/task-based learning, clinical presentations can be mentioned. In these activities, cases sometimes written individually by relevant instructor and sometimes by a trainer who is a member of a scenario, block or clinical skills committees. Trainers, often express lack of resources that can guide case writing. The purpose of this review is to provide an understandable and accessible basic resource for educators who write or wish to write cases in different areas with different targets.