Optimizing resident training: results and recommendations of the 2009 Council of Residency Directors consensus conference

UK multisite evaluation of the impact of clinical educators in EDs from a learner's perspective

BACKGROUND

In England, demand for emergency care is increasing while there is also a staffing shortage. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) suggested that appointment of senior doctors as clinical educators (CEs) would enable support and development of learners in EDs and improve retention and well-being. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of CEs in ED on learners.

METHODS

CEs were placed in 54 NHS Acute Trust EDs for a pilot beginning July 2018 and ending October 2020. Learners from multiple disciplines working at 54 NHS Acute Trust EDs where CEs were deployed were invited to complete an online survey designed to identify the impact of CEs in July of 2019, as part of an interim service evaluation.

RESULTS

Respondents numbered 493 from 49 of 54 study sites, including 286 (58%) medical (non-consultant) and 72 (14.6%) all other nursing, allied health professionals. 9 out of 10 learners reported having experienced a change to their learning as a result of the deployment of CEs in their department. 49.9% (246/493) reported that CEs had a positive impact on their well-being. 95% (340/358) reported an improved accessibility to undertaking clinical based assessments. 78% (281/358) perceived that access to CEs increased likelihood of passing assessments. Of those responding, 80.9% (399/493) reported they would remain/return to the same ED with a CE, and 92.5% (456/493) responded that they would prefer to go to a Trust with a CE.

CONCLUSIONS

According to survey respondents, deployment of CEs across NHS Trusts has resulted in improvement and increased accessibility of learning and assessment opportunities for learners within ED. The impact of CEs on well-being is uncertain with half reporting improvement and the remaining half unsure. Further evaluation within the project will continue to explore the service benefit and workforce impact of the CEED intervention.

Impact of a financial incentive on the completion of educational metrics

Background

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires all emergency medicine (EM) training programs to evaluate resident performance and also requires core faculty to attend didactic conference. Assuring faculty participation in these activities can be challenging. Previously, our institution did not have a formal tracking program nor financial incentive for participation in these activities. In 2017, we initiated an educational dashboard which tracked and published all full-time university faculty conference attendance and participation in resident evaluations and other educational activities.

Objectives

We sought to determine if the implementation of a financially-incentivized educational dashboard would lead to an increase in faculty conference attendance and the number of completed resident evaluations.

Methods

We conducted a pre- and post-intervention observational study at our EM residency training program between July 2017 and July 2019. Participants were 17 full-time EM attendings at one training site. We compared the number of completed online resident evaluations (MedHub) and number of conference days attended (call-in verification) before and after the introduction of our financial incentive in June 2018. The incentive required 100% completion of resident evaluations and at least 25% attendance at eligible didactic conference days. We calculated pre- and post-intervention averages, and comparisons were made using a chi-square test.

Results

Prior to implementation of the intervention, the 90-day resident evaluation completion rate was 71.8%. This increased to 100% after implementation (p < 0.001). Conference attendance prior to implementation was 43.8%, which remained unchanged at 41.3% after implementation of the financial incentive (p = 0.920).

Conclusions

Attaching a financial incentive to a tracked educational dashboard increased faculty participation in resident evaluations but did not change conference attendance. This difference likely reflects the minimum thresholds required to obtain the financial incentive.

Competency Based Medical Education-Towards the Development of a Standardized Pediatric Radiology Testing Module

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

To introduce a process that allows for development of standardized competency based testing modules (CBTM) for evaluating resident progress and competence during their radiology training. This work focuses on the development of pediatric imaging CBTMs to be utilized during general radiology residency.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Multiple in-patient and ER imaging request audits along with surveys of training programs and text recommendations were obtained. A list of 200 total diagnoses accumulated by review was distributed into one of four CBTM folders. Imaging cases which made ≥90% of the indications of the audits were added to Folder 1. Distribution of remaining imaging diagnoses was based on consensus by three subspecialists. A pilot study was performed with residents dictating selected imaging cases in their usual manner mimicking a typical rotation.

RESULTS

The pilot study demonstrated resident grading mean scores significantly associated with both the American College of Radiology (ACR) rank (rho = 0.636, p = 0.035) and the objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) scores (rho = 0.694, p = 0.018). The mean scores positively associated with the ACR score (rho = 0.466), but fell short of statistical significance (p = 0.149). As expected, the ACR score, ACR rank and OSCE scores all significantly correlated with each other ( < 0.01). PGY also significantly correlated with the ACR score (rho = 0.683, p = 0.021) and the OSCE (rho = 0.767, p = 0.006) but not with the ACR rank (rho = 0.408, p = 0.213).

CONCLUSION

The process utilized to develop a standardized CBTM can be used as a simulation tool to assess radiology resident competence during their training. The format allows for assessment of resident reasoning skills and knowledge base, which provides documentation of progression and throughout residency.

Clinical learning during night call versus day work: Perceptions of interns

Introduction:

Clinical learning during night call has been shown to be less efficient and effective than during the day among residents. Strategies are needed to address the gap between night-time and daytime learning. We conducted a survey study to examine perceptions of night-time compared with daytime learning among Internal Medicine interns, and asked for suggestions to address this gap.

Method:

This is a cross-sectional survey study conducted on a single class of 47 interns from Singapore General Hospital in December 2013. Interns anonymously completed a modified previously published 25-item survey. A total of 23 items asked for ratings of learning during the day versus the night using a 5-point Likert scale. The remaining two open-ended questions invited respondents to suggest improvements for teaching and learning. Analysis was done by descriptive statistics for the Likert-scale items, and thematic coding by two coders for narrative responses.

Results:

Response rate was 70% (33/47). Interns rated learning during the day more positively than during night call for 23 of 23 (100%) items, with 22 out of 23 items showing significant difference. Among the 33 respondents, 20 provided narrative responses. Three major themes emerged: increasing manpower, allowing patient follow-up after night call, and more time for bedside teaching in the daytime.

Conclusion:

Our study confirms that learning during night call is perceived as less effective than during the day. We further extended this finding to offer alternate strategies to enhance clinical learning among interns.

Toward a new paradigm: goal-based residency training

OBJECTIVES

Many factors affect the clinical training experience of emergency medicine (EM) residents, and length of training currently serves as a proxy for clinical experience. Very few studies have been published that provide quantitative information about clinical experience. The goals of this study were to determine the numbers of clinical encounters for each resident in emergency department (ED) rotations during training in a 3-year program, to characterize these encounters by patient acuity and age, to determine the numbers of encounters for selected clinical disorders, and to assess the variation in clinical experience between residents.

METHODS

This was a retrospective analysis of the ED clinical and administrative databases at two hospitals that provide EM training for a southeastern U.S. EM residency program. Data were gathered for three complete cohorts of residents, with entering years of 2003, 2004, and 2005, so the total study period was 2003-2008. ED clinical encounter information included hospital training site (tertiary or community), postgraduate year (PGY) of the resident, patient triage acuity reflected by the Emergency Severity Index (ESI); patient International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) diagnostic code; and patient age group.

RESULTS

There were 25 residents with 120,240 total ED clinical encounters from 2003 to 2008. The median number of ED clinical encounters for a resident during his or her training was 4,836 (range = 3,831 to 5,780), based on a maximum of an 80-hour work week, and 24 or 25 four-week blocks of EM rotations. Overall, clinical encounters increased by 30% from PGY 1 to PGY 2, and another 14% from PGY 2 to PGY 3. There was 30% to 60% variation in clinical encounters between individual residents. Variability was most prominent in the care of children and in the care of time-sensitive critical illness. Resident encounters with lower-acuity problems during training were much less than the anticipated lower-acuity burden during practice. Additionally, residents did not encounter some high-risk conditions clinically during the study period.

CONCLUSIONS

Methods should be developed to decrease resident variance in both numbers and types of clinical encounters and to provide curriculum supplementation for individuals and for the entire residency cohort in areas that are important for the clinical practice of EM, but that are rare or not encountered during residency training.