I posted this in another thread. Hopefully someone can tell you more about the format this year:
I was part of the trial last year, so I can tell you how that was...
They presented us with a case - something like a 50 year old white male, overweight, BP, HR, blah blah blah complaining of chest pain.
Then we pretty much talked about the case. Some would say "WHOA, his HR is super high." And others would say "Is it? I don't really know what the normal HR range is for adult males." Someone would state the obvious, that a heart attack is likely in overweight males his age.
This is how PBL starts out. You create learning objectives and research those topics for the next meeting. So in our Iowa group, we would write objectives on a board - normal vital signs for adults, warning signs of a heart attack, causes of chest pain...sometimes some of these were answered by an applicant, and sometimes nobody really knew and we would just write down a question.
Then we would get another sheet of paper giving us more information about the case (like patient health history) and we would talk more, another sheet (family history) and more...
It was a nice way to see what PBL is like, and since it wasn't being "graded," people were relaxed and friendly. In the evaluation, however, I recommended they not include it as part of the interview. I'm not sure exactly what they will be looking for, but they must know some will have a lot of clinical knowledge while others will have very little. PBL is a completely new experience for many people, so the first week or two, some talk freely while others need to get used to the process.
In an interview context, someone who happens to know a lot about whatever case you are presented with will probably blab on and on, trying to be the shining student. Then other people will be forced to interrupt in an attempt to be assertive and give their bit of input. I mean, the entire interview experience is a competition, but I thought adding a PBL component would really pit students against each other. Hopefully I'm wrong. Let us know how it goes.
