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Accelerating the development of diagnostic reasoning skills for nurse practitioner students is high on the wish list of many faculty. The purpose of this article is to describe how the teaching strategy of problem-based learning (PBL) that drills the hypothetico-deductive or analytic reasoning process when combined with an assignment that fosters pattern recognition (a nonanalytic process) teaches and reinforces the dual process of diagnostic reasoning. In an online Doctor of Nursing Practice program, four PBL cases that start with the same symptom unfold over 2 weeks. These four cases follow different paths as they unfold leading to different diagnoses. Culminating each PBL case, a unique assignment called an illness script was developed to foster the development of pattern recognition. When combined with hypothetico-deductive reasoning drilled during the PBL case, students experience the dual process approach to diagnostic reasoning used by clinicians.

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Patients with comorbid mental and physical illnesses often present in the primary care setting. To explore the complexities of caring for these patients, a Behavioral Health Therapeutics course was developed and taught in the first semester of a Doctor of Nursing Practice program. This article describes the research, theories, and curricular innovations used in the online learning environment, which provide the foundation for the course and reflect the essential changes called for in the 2010 Carnegie report. Highlighted in this article is the unfolding case study method using Backward Design by Wiggins and McTighe in the planning phase, Zull's model for engaging the brain in the Implementation phase, and grading criteria created from Tanner's "Case for Cases: A Pedagogy for Developing Habits of Thought" in the evaluation phase.