Dr. Suzette Rose Cooke

1) The skill of clinical reasoning is central to making optimal decisions in the medical assessment,investigation and treatment of children. My research interest is in delineating how the skill of clinical reasoning differs between physicians in training, junior staff physicians and experienced physicians. I am also interested in integrating this with elucidating the characteristics of optimal decision-making. Identification of these factors has implications for how we teach, learn and assess clinical reasoning, given that the skill of clinical reasoning impacts every major clinical decision a physician makes. It is prudent to undertake research that supports physicians in honing this skill throughout the continuum of training and in on-going professional development. Physicians who can make effective and efficient clinical decisions will be more optimally positioned to create healthy clinical outcomes for children.

2) The ability to perform in urgent and emergent pediatric acute in-patient care situations relies on the development and maintenance of relevant, and evolving, knowledge, skills and attitudes. Paradoxically trainees and staff have few opportunities to learn and practice in these critical care situations - except when they occur randomly in real life. In such situations the patient becomes the only medium available for practice and which may create less than ideal learning situations or patient outcomes. Simulation offers the possibility of a systematic and diverse case mix, topics targeted to address known and anticipated needs, potential to deliver the educational intervention at any given time and place, and the ability to accommodate multiple participants representing the true composition of the in-patient care team. My research interests in simulation are focused on the development and evaluation of curricula for multi-disciplinary in-patient staff. My intent is to create curricula with maximal clinical relevance and to measure the effect of such curricula on translational outcomes with pediatric patients.