Background
Clinical decision-making is influenced by cognitive biases, yet traditional medical education provides limited opportunities to explore these biases in real-time. This study evaluates whether outdoor experiential learning enhances awareness of decision-making processes and bias recognition among emergency medicine (EM) residents.
Methods
We developed an outdoor experiential workshop where EM residents selected one of three guided backcountry activities. Facilitated discussions integrated clinical and outdoor decision-making concepts, highlighting cognitive biases in real-time. Participants completed pre- and post-course surveys assessing decision-making and workshop experience using Likert-scale measures. The results of the pre-course and post-course surveys were then analyzed using a one-tailed two-sample unequal variance t-test. The workshop experience evaluation was assumed to be normally distributed and reported as a mean and standard deviation.
Results
Of 36 eligible residents, 32 (89%) completed the pre-course survey, and 20 (62.5%) completed the post-course survey. Participants reported high overall enjoyment (4.91/5 ± 0.301), increased awareness of decision-making biases (4.52/5 ± 0.602), and perceived educational value (4.71/5 ± 0.483). Post-course responses demonstrated significant improvement in recognizing clinical and non-clinical decision-making parallels (Δ +0.85, p = 0.001), cognition around biases (Δ +0.347, p = 0.021), and understanding of decision-making biases (Δ +0.304, p = 0.032).
Conclusion
Our preliminary data suggests that outdoor experiential learning may be a valuable tool for improving EM resident understanding of decision-making biases, increasing cognition around cognitive bias, and greater appreciation of the non-clinical parallel decision-making. Future work should examine overall application of these decision-making concepts as well as long-term retention of these principles.
Return to Table of Contents: 2025 Emergency Medicine Medical Student and Resident Research Symposium
Enhancing Clinical Decision-Making Through Outdoor Experiential Learning: A Novel Educational Approach for Emergency Medicine Residents by Sarah Petelinsek, Ethan Grant, Theodore Hartridge, DO, Rowan Kelner & Patrick G. Hughes