How does PBL Work?

[EHA DDS]

I was interested in learning about how Problem Based Learning works in medical school. For us, we have traditional didactic lectures on the basic sciences which are enriched with clinical case presentations.

So in PBL how does it work? You get a case and have to determine the scientific basis of it? Like would they give you a case about PKU so that you can learn about amino acid metabolism in general? As well, how would they teach something basic like Krebs or glycolysis...or is it upto you to fill in the missing parts?

Thanks

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[ecranda]

Hi. I go to a totally PBL system. Basically we have a huge list of readings to do for all our disciplines on our own. Then we come into small groups and go over clinical cases. We use the basic science as well as the case specific readings to make sense of the case. For instance to study Krebs and the other biochem cycles we did a case on diabetes. In order to fully understand what happens in a diabetic, the ketone acidosis and weight lose, high blood surgar, ect, a complete understanding of the pathways is needed. So, this is basically how we do it. We read the basic science and then relate it back to clinical cases. It really is a comprehensive way to learn. It takes a lot of extra work, but in the end you remember a whole lot more. Also, it gives you some clinical applications to help you appreciate the material. For our PKU case, since that was your example, we learned the pathway that is involved with all the various enzymes and which types are due to which nonfunctional enzymes. We also read about the clinical presentations, the types of diet or supplements and why based on the pathway. Also, the likely outcome, the nerological damage created by high Phenyalanine levels and why. Basically we got a case describing what the patient presented with and their tests, treatment and progress. Then we had to use the stuff we had learned (from several disciplines- Neuro, Path, Biochem, Genetics, ect.) to explain all the details of the case. We basically learn the same things as a lecture school, we just have to figure a lot of it out on our own. Thats all.

Hope this helps some!