Dealing with dilemmas in daily clinical practice: The development and evaluation of the seminar “suddenly, at the hospital” aimed at promoting professional identity formation in the final practical year of undergraduate medical education

Aim: In everyday clinical practice, (future) physicians are confronted with dilemmas for which there are no clear solutions and which cannot be solved using clinical knowledge alone. To prepare medical students for such situations and support their formation of a professional identity, we developed a seminar that didactically applies elements of case-based clinical reasoning and storification to situations and potential professional strategies (medical professionalism). Project description: An interdisciplinary working group generated 28 ideas for cases depicting clinical dilemmas. These case ideas were assigned to five categories: Patient, colleague, supervisor, relatives, and self. These case ideas were then presented to medical students. A course concept was developed for the case idea in each category that garnered the highest level of interest. To develop the seminar sessions, teaching strategies were selected which encouraged reflection and participation. The course evaluation was carried out using a questionnaire. Results: The five seminar topics dealt with (1) no medical insurance (patient), (2) covering up a complication in medical treatment (colleague), (3) medical confidentiality (relatives), (4) conflict of roles (supervisor), and (5) romantic feelings toward patients (self). The seminar entailed five sessions, each one consisting of four teaching units. The course evaluations (N=16 practical-year (PY) students; age: M=26.50; SD=2.83; female: n=13) registered a high level of satisfaction among the students in regard to the course content and pedagogical approach. Conclusion: It was possible to successfully design and implement a course concept interlinking case-based clinical reasoning, storification and medical professionalism. The seminar enabled students to get a grasp on situations that go beyond clinical knowledge and develop strategies.