ARTE Student Module 1 - Student Questions
Strategies for Students
- Contract with your preceptor on a specific Question Time each work period to ask questions that did not get addressed during the busy flow of patient care.
- Keep a Questions Card (“Q Card”) in your pocket to note questions to ask when time allows. Record the most useful questions that arise over the course of your clerkship.
- For difficult questions, be willing to allow some time to pass for both the teacher and the student to process the issue. Good questions do not always have easy answers. Be sure to return to the questions.
- Remember, every situation is different. These are patients, not cases. Do not presume that there is only one good approach to taking care of patients.
- Focus questions on the doctor’s areas of special interest. Figure out what you can learn from this physician.
- Try to balance the focus of your questions between biomedical facts and the process of patient care.
- Ask for feedback on the questions you ask: the tone, content and form. Plan to discuss questions at your mid-clerkship review.