Introduction: Patient safety is fundamental for a qualitative medical system. Although the topic of medical errors has been in the spotlight for many years, they continue to be responsible for many deaths worldwide. Out of these, the highest morbidity is claimed by diagnostic errors. Cognition is the key factor responsible for this type of errors. The aim of this study was to evaluate how medical residents are taught to employ cognition in the process of clinical reasoning. Materials and methods: The study made use of a 14–items online questionnaire filled in by 51 male and female medical residents in Iasi, Romania, between July 4th and September 4th 2017. Results and discussion: Most of the respondents (84.2%) have recognized the existence of cognitive biases during the diagnostic process. Almost half of the contributing residents (41.2%) think that the experience of older physicians is helping them commit less cognitive errors. The same percentage of respondents admits that they do not know how to reduce the incidence of diagnostic errors. Conclusions: The survey reveals the lack of information in preventing diagnostic errors and the need for education regarding clinical reasoning during residency training.
Keywords:- clinical reasoning
- diagnostic errors
- medical education.
- medical errors