5-Day-Old Infant With Fever: A Case-Based Exercise for Medical Students

Abstract

Abstract Introduction This case was designed as a 3-hour workshop for second-year medical students. It has been used as part of a series of clinical cases created to help students synthesize what they have learned in multiple organ system courses and apply their knowledge to clinical reasoning, and has been administered at the end of the second year of medical school. The exercise could be used at various points in medical students' training, but participants should have completed coursework in microbiology and antibiotic pharmacology beforehand Methods Case objectives, a suggested schedule, ideas for effective implementation, and an answer guide for all of the necessary case assignments are included in the Facilitator's Guide. A separate document for students contains all materials that should be provided to students over the course of the exercise. Students work in groups of eight to discuss aspects of the case. Results A version of this case has been used in our institution for the last 8 years with a total of approximately 1,280 second-year medical students. Although we haven't solicited formal feedback from faculty, our small-group facilitators consistently comment that they are impressed by the level of student engagement and the clinical sophistication of students' small-group discussions. Student satisfaction with the exercise has steadily increased over the 8 years that we have run the case. Students appreciate the clinical relevance of the case and the focus on pediatrics during a year of their training that has a heavy emphasis on adult medicine. Discussion This case requires preclinical students to integrate and synthesize learning from many different courses and disciplines. In our experience, the modified team-based learning approach that this exercise employs generates lively and clinically-sophisticated discussions among second-year medical students.

Keywords

• Infant
• Sepsis
• Neonate
• Fever
• Febrile