Does management reasoning constitute the backbone of the clinical learning environment?: Conceptual analysis of the existing notions

Abstract

Management reasoning is a paradigm whereby learning occurs in a context bound fashion on analysing the biophysical factors existing in the clinical learning environment. In the contemporarymedical education forums, much importance is being laid on clinical reasoning and this warrants the appropriate usage of the biomedical knowledge in arriving at the diagnosis. We perceive that clinical reasoning, in pure sense, often doesn’t solve the purpose of rendering the best management plan to the patient. This holds stronger when the case is non-linear and highly complex in nature. Management reasoning fills the gap between hypotheses generation, i.e. accomplishing diagnosis and devising management plan. Indeed, it is a complex activity relying on several factors including the physician’s perceptual abilities and situated cognition derived from formal and informal learningexperiences. In contrast to clinical reasoning, which can be taught using structured scenarios, management reasoning necessitates analysing multitude of factors revolving around a patient andprioritizing those in order to titrate the best possible management plan. This commentary spotlights different dimensions of management reasoning, emphasizes the need of teaching it in the current scenarios, enlists the ways it can be taught, and opens the platform for discussing further on this underemphasized topic.

Keywords

• clinical reasoning
• decision making
• social determinants