Abstract

AYALA DE MENDOZA, Fátima  and  CANESE CABALLERO, Valentina. Clinical simulation: the necessary bridge for deliberate clinical reasoning practice. Rev. cient. cienc. salud [online]. 2026, vol.8, e81005.  Epub Jan 31, 2026. ISSN 2664-2891.  https://doi.org/10.53732/rccsalud/2026.e81005.

Clinical Reasoning (CR) is the core competency of medicine, defined as the systematic processing of clinical data under the Dual Process Model to formulate hypotheses and guide decisions. Its explicit teaching is a persistent challenge, with metacognition being essential to mitigate biases. This qualitative Conceptual Narrative Review synthesized evidence (2019–2025) from Scopus, Google Scholar, and SciELO to analyze the contribution of simulation. Clinical Simulation (CS) is validated as the most advantageous strategy, since its deliberate practice with Standardized Patients (SP) guarantees the standardization of data collection and encourages the Construction of Mental Representations. CS is a cognitive catalyst that forces the transition of CR from implicit to explicit, with reflective debriefing being the critical element to activate metacognition. However, high cost barriers and a shortage of teacher training hinder systematization. SC is essential for early CR and bias mitigation, but institutional support and teacher training are required to overcome logistical obstacles and optimize large-scale deliberate practice.

Keywords : clinical reasoning; simulation; metacognition; standardized patients; deliberate practice.

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