Teaching Clinical Reasoning in Medical Education: qualitative insights from educators at two UK universities
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background: Deficiencies in clinical reasoning are a major contributor to diagnostic error and patient harm globally. There is increasing recognition of the need for longitudinal, integrated clinical reasoning teaching within medical curricula. This qualitative study explored educators’ understanding and perceptions of clinical reasoning at two UK medical schools with differing approaches to clinical reasoning education.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 final-year medical clerkship supervisors across the two institutions. Interviews explored their understanding of clinical reasoning, experiences with teaching clinical reasoning, and perspectives on curriculum design and faculty development. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify key themes.
Results: Educators described clinical reasoning as a complex cognitive operation. While they broadly shared an understanding of its core components, and its essential role in effective clinical decision making, their individual accounts revealed variations in scope and emphasis. Key themes included the need for longitudinally integrated curricula, explicit clinical reasoning instruction, structured faculty development, and challenges such as time constraints, institutional culture, and variable student engagement.
Conclusion: The roles of a longitudinal and integrated curriculum design and faculty development in preparing educators to teach clinical reasoning were highlighted. These results are crucial for those considering new curriculum implementation, highlighting the need to design and introduce a focused faculty development programme for educators alongside the planned curriculum.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 final-year medical clerkship supervisors across the two institutions. Interviews explored their understanding of clinical reasoning, experiences with teaching clinical reasoning, and perspectives on curriculum design and faculty development. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify key themes.
Results: Educators described clinical reasoning as a complex cognitive operation. While they broadly shared an understanding of its core components, and its essential role in effective clinical decision making, their individual accounts revealed variations in scope and emphasis. Key themes included the need for longitudinally integrated curricula, explicit clinical reasoning instruction, structured faculty development, and challenges such as time constraints, institutional culture, and variable student engagement.
Conclusion: The roles of a longitudinal and integrated curriculum design and faculty development in preparing educators to teach clinical reasoning were highlighted. These results are crucial for those considering new curriculum implementation, highlighting the need to design and introduce a focused faculty development programme for educators alongside the planned curriculum.
Date Issued
2026-12-01
Date Acceptance
2026-03-13
Citation
BMC Medical Education, 2026, 26 (1)
ISSN
1472-6920
Publisher
BMC
Journal / Book Title
BMC Medical Education
Volume
26
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4 .0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1186/s12909-026-09037-6
Subjects
Clinical reasoning
Curriculum
Faculty development
Medical educators
Undergraduate medical education
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
1160
Date Publish Online
2026-04-15