The battery for assessment of clinical reasoning in the Olympiad for medical sciences students

Clinical reasoning is not only a critical skill in medicine, but also central to the clinical practice. Considering that there is no method of assessing clinical reasoning based on the theoretical framework of medical expertise research, we could approach assessment in an innovative way taking the model of clinical reasoning as a guide. In this model three major components of clinical reasoning (i.e. information gathering, hypothesis formation and hypothesis evaluation) have been measured, treating them collectively as a single score that reflects clinical reasoning competency. This battery permits the inclusion of different formats of clinical reasoning tests that cannot be administered simultaneously and assesses different aspects of clinical reasoning. This article explains the process of designing and implementing the battery of clinical reasoning in the first Olympiad for medical sciences students using action research method.