The two semesters of Clinical Correlations gave me the opportunity to enhance my clinical reasoning skills and build a strong foundation for my clinical year. In the first semester, I was hyper focused on diagnosing the patient and “solving” the case rather than asking the right questions to get the full picture. At the beginning, I wasn’t asking questions in a systematic fashion. I wanted to ensure that all of the OLDCARTS elements were asked, but after that, I asked questions based on intuition. Although sometimes intuition is good and can help you greatly, it can also allow for questions to be missed. During the second semester, I started formulating a differential diagnosis while I was asking questions, and this guided my questions to rule in or out etiologies on that list.

During my first semester, it was harder for me to create a differential diagnosis and link symptoms to possible etiologies. I found that I was thinking too narrow. If one symptom did not typically fit to a diagnosis, I often did not consider that diagnosis. During the second semester, I started with a broader differential diagnosis and then ruled things out through the questions asked during the interview and the exam. This allowed me to think more critically about the case.

The two semesters also helped sharpen my patient presentation skills. At first, I was very dependent on a prewritten presentation I did for homework to present during the next class. However, by the end, I was able to present without as much preparation. It felt like I went from reciting to actually presenting.

All in all, I feel that I grew a lot during the two semesters of Clinical Correlations, and it provided a strong base for my clinical year.