A Transformation of Preclinical Paper‐Based PBL To Real Patient‐Based PBL

Problem-based learning (PBL) has gained popularity as one possible basis for medical curricula, and its advocates believe that it empowers students to gain knowledge and develop necessary learning skills [1]. Its supporters claim that PBL promotes interactive learning, critical thinking, collaboration, and selfdirected learning, which all together lead to a clear and better retention of knowledge [1]. However, it has been questioned as to whether or not PBL delivers on its claims to improve knowledge and clinical performance [2] or if students’ level of knowledge and skills can be significantly differentiated from those that result from traditional lecture-based learning [3]. To complicate matters, recent literature [4–7] has suggested that the problems commonly posed in PBL sessions are often not realistic. So far, the problems used in most medical curricula are “paper” problems, and the problems themselves might be too well structured and too clearly informed. The complexities of reality seem to be less often considered and real patients or authentic encounters seem to be seldom used. According to Dammers et al’s study on using real patients in PBL, PBL does not necessarily stimulate students’ contextual learning if relevance is absent. They reported that student respondents were “finding out real information and how things affected real people, not abstract theory which would be far less relevant” [4]. IS REAL PATIENT-BASED PBL A WAY TO LINK PRECLINICAL PBL AND CLINICAL TRAINING?