Total recall

ffolliet March 3, 2025 4 Comments

Are Your Medical Presentations Stuck in Recall Mode?

Most medical presentations never move beyond the lowest level of learning. They flood audiences with facts, demand memorization, and hope something sticks. Real learning, the kind that transforms practice, happens when information is applied, analyzed, and used to create new solutions. If your presentation stops at recall, you’re wasting an opportunity.

The Problem: Presentations That Don’t Go Deep

Too many presentations stay trapped in the bottom rung of Bloom’s Taxonomy: remembering. The harsh facts are that it is highly unlikely, despite your attention (?) that you can remember three facts from the last presentation you received. When I present workshops, it is often the case that audiences can’t even remember the last presentation let alone three facts! Far from total recall. There were likely endless lists, definitions, and statistics all mistakingly offered as information transfer for learning. Medicine isn’t about recalling lists but application, it’s about solving problems. If your audience leaves very little more and therefore unable to act differently, what’s the point?

Take antibiotic stewardship. A presenter listing drug classes and resistance patterns supports recall, but does it change behavior? Medical professionals need more than definitions—they need to assess cases, weigh options, and decide on treatment. If your presentations don’t help them do that, that is an opportunity for change that is lost.

The Fix: Move Up the Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy gives you a roadmap to make your presentations more impactful. Instead of asking, What should they know?, ask:

• How will they use this knowledge? (Apply)
• What decisions must they make? (Evaluate)
• Can they create something new from it? (Create)

A presentation on sepsis shouldn’t just define the criteria—it should present cases, challenge the audience to prioritize interventions, and foster discussion on best practices. That’s how real learning happens.

Structure for Higher-Order Thinking

Don’t overwhelm your audience with a wall of information. Instead, scaffold learning:

1. Start with foundation – Ensure they remember and understand key principles.
2. Introduce application – Use real cases, ask for interpretations.
3. Encourage analysis – Challenge them to compare, contrast, and evaluate options.
4. End with creation – Have them design a protocol, formulate recommendations, or debate a case.

This mirrors how clinicians think—progressing from baseline knowledge to expert problem-solving.

Make It Active

Traditional lectures invite passive listening, not engagement. Instead consider:

• Use polls and quizzes to test real-world application.
• Drive discussions with case-based questions.
• Set up problem-solving exercises that demand group input.

A session on interpreting chest X-rays? Start with a recall question (“What are pneumonia’s key signs?”), then build to analyzing complex cases in teams.

Assess the Right Way

If you want critical thinkers, don’t test with multiple-choice recall. Use open-ended questions, case discussions, or scenario-based assessments. Learning should reflect real-world challenges, not memorization tricks.

The Takeaway

Medical professionals operate in high-stakes environments where knowing is not enough. They must apply, evaluate, and create solutions on the spot. Your presentation should help them do that.

• Set higher learning goals. Recall is not the finish line.
• Design for depth. Move from facts to application.
• Engage actively. Don’t just talk—make them think.

Your job isn’t just to inform. It is to equip. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy as your guide; your audience will leave ready to act, not just remember. Isn’t that the real purpose of medical education?