Teaching Rounds: Speaking Up, Getting Involved, and Learning to Accept Uncertainty

Abstract

Teaching rounds can be an intensive and highly productive learning experience for medical students. Participating in care discussions, asking questions, and engaging enthusiastically in Socratic dialogues with the attending are excellent ways for students to get involved in rounds and enhance learning for all. Teaching rounds is where students learn to treat pain and anxiety, advocate for their patients, discuss the big picture, and generally begin to understand the art of medicine. Because they are inexperienced and prone to be cautious, medical students often struggle with clinical decision-making. Intolerance of uncertainty and need for cognitive closure can increase stress and make decisions more difficult for both students and physicians. Explicit discussion on rounds of the need for decisiveness in the face of diagnostic uncertainty can help students to understand and accept the probabilistic nature of clinical decision-making.