Facilitating Student Learning

Abstract

Helping students learn in medical education presents unique challenges that have changed rapidly over the last 10 years. For example, the growth of medical knowledge is accelerating exponentially, making it impossible for prospective physicians to learn everything they need to know during medical school, and making it essential for them to learn the skills related to lifelong learning that will serve them for their entire medical careers. Prospective physicians must learn how to identify their own learning needs, identify appropriate sources for addressing those needs, and learn how to apply the information and skills acquired to the care of patients during medical school and beyond. In addition, traditional models that feature pre-clinical training followed by 2 years of clinical training are giving way to newer models, which emphasize early application of basic science knowledge to clinical problems (e.g., through problem-based learning), as well as revisiting basic science content in the clinical years.