Description and rules of a new card game to learn clinical reasoning in musculoskeletal physiotherapy.
Renaud Hage, Antoine Fourré, Laura Ramonfosse and 3 others
PMID 36317932WHAT IT FOUND
Physiotherapy students described a new card game as engaging and helpful for practicing clinical reasoning.
The tool organizes patient information into hypothesis categories but has not been tested to show it actually improves reasoning skills or patient outcomes.
Key findings
01The game uses a 'Happy Families' card structure to help students organize hypotheses about ten specific categories of clinical judgment, such as pain type, pathology, and prognosis.
02Feedback from 27 students indicated the activity increased their interest in clinical reasoning and understanding of the subject.
03The effectiveness of the game as a learning tool has not been evaluated beyond this internal student survey.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study reports no data on whether the game actually improves clinical reasoning skills or patient care; it only reports student satisfaction and perceived engagement. The survey included only 27 participants from a single post-professional training group, with no control group or long-term follow-up. The authors state that the effectiveness of the game has not been evaluated beyond this internal survey. The game relies on teachers being skilled in small group facilitation and having high-quality clinical cases, which varies by context.
Declared interests
The work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund Interreg FWVl NOMADe. No other conflicts of interest are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this game improves clinical reasoning or patient outcomes. The paper states effectiveness has not been evaluated beyond a small survey of student enjoyment and perceived interest, so there is no evidence yet that it changes how clinicians think or treat patients.