title: Problem-based learning in a surgery clerkship.
abstract: The authors were members of the first group of medical students to participate in a newly modified third-year surgery clerkship at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. The primary teaching methodology of this clerkship is problem-based learning (PBL). In this type of learning experience, students work with paper cases as though they were actual patients, using a method similar to that which they will later use as residents or practising physicians. The students make the decisions themselves, formulating differential diagnoses, eliciting relevant items from a history and physical examination, proceeding with a diagnostic work-up, and creating a treatment plan. This problem-based method increases students' use of resources, improves their retention of information, and helps them develop time management skills. Although the students believe that the clerkship as a whole should offer more opportunities for hands-on experience, they found the PBL component of the clerkship highly motivating, intellectually stimulating, and experimentally satisfying.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center, Lexington.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blosser
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000592:standards*; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007629:Kentucky; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards