Morning Report Reflection

During today's morning report, I enjoyed the staff's use of personal reflection on the patient cases and one's self. The resident on-call chose a few interesting patients to discuss. This allowed each of us in the room to use the chief complaint to construct our own differential diagnoses followed by a discussion of the pertinent teaching points.

One of the most interesting aspects that I found was the staff's use of a summary table in discussing each of the patients. The headings were the following: ID, CC/summary, confidence about diagnosis (1-7), diagnosis (if confidence > 4) and area of difficulty surrounding the case. I really enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on one's own level of confidence in their differential as well as the difficulties in managing the case that may have contributed to this doubt. I think that this allows a lot of opportunity  to learn from very difficult cases and perhaps change your thought process in the future when encountering a potential "zebra".

At the end of the morning report, the staff also asked everyone to take away a learning point from the discussion or an area in which you may want to review. Overall, I found it to be an insightful and interesting approach to morning report and I hope to incorporate some of these reflections in my future practice.

- JD