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Current Research in Emergency Medicine
[ ISSN : 2832-5699 ]


Tying in Situational Awareness, Clinical Reasoning and Clinical Judgment through Cross-Training Using Case-Based Discussions in Emergency Medicine

Case Study
Volume 2 - Issue 2 | Article DOI : 10.54026/CREM/1024


Fatimah Lateef *

1Senior Consultant, Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
2Professor, Dukes-NUS Graduate Medical School, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of
Singapore, Singapore
3Director, SingHealth Duke NUS Institute of Medical Simulation, Singapore

Corresponding Authors

Fatimah Lateef, FRCS (A&E), MBBS, FAMS (Em Med) Senior Consultant, Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Professor, Dukes-NUS Graduate Medical School, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and Director, SingHealth Duke NUS Institute of Medical Simulation, Singapore.

Keywords

Situational Awareness; Clinical Reasoning; Clinical Judgment; CaseBased Discussion

Received : March 04, 2022
Published : March 15, 2022

Abstract

Situational Awareness (SA) is knowing about what is going on around oneself, whether as an individual or as a team. It is the mental impression of where you are, what surrounds you and what lies ahead. SA has been noted to be one of the most important non-technical skills in medicine. It is a foundational concept in many high reliability organizations and industries for its importance in operational decision-making. Clinical Reasoning essentially summarises the process of making timely and accurate diagnosis. It goes through the steps of history taking, physical examination, performing diagnostic investigations, interpreting the results that are returned and planning management for patient care. It is a fundamental in the practice of medicine and even in today’s context of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, these steps are incorporated into the algorithmic formulae. Clinical Judgment, on the other hand involves the process of “noticing, interpreting, responding and reflection” Just from the three definitions above, it can be seen that there may be overlaps between the three terms. They are also very often used almost interchangeably. Practitioners of academic medicine, educators and faculty, need to understand the similarities and differences between the three terms. They are often called upon to assess their learners in these domains. Thus, clarity on what each term exactly means is essential. In this paper, the author shares her experience as an educator and core faculty in Emergency Medicine Residency on the utilization of Case-Based Discussions (CBD) in the nurturing and inculcation as well as assessment of all these three domains. The ability to plan and use CBD in such a manner is time efficient and effective for emergency physicians, as it can be consciously prepared with the coverage of SA, CR and CJ skills all incorporated into the shared narrative or scenario management.