Questioning: A teaching strategy to foster clinical thinking and reasoning

Using focused questions is one of the many ways to help students think about what they are doing. These questions can be asked during preconference, during the course of the clinical day, or on postconference. Benner et al5 warn that cynicism and excessive doubt are by-products of too much critical thinking. They suggest that faculty shift their approach from exclusive emphasis on critical thinking to an emphasis on clinical reasoning and multiple ways of thinking that include critical thinking.6 Clinical reasoning is a form of practical reasoning through transitions in patients' conditions or situations.5 Asking simple questions that require reflective thinking is one way to promote clinical reasoning.