(1380) Asynchronous Online Fundamental Critical Care Education Curriculum in an Academic Hospital

Introduction: Resident education in ICUs through traditional methods such as bedside rounds and didactic lectures by critical care medicine (CCM) faculty can be challenging and inconsistent, due to high acuity and fast paced ICU environment. We conducted an educational quality improvement project to assess barriers to resident education and opportunities to improve educational experience.

Methods: A 12-question pre-survey was created to assess residents’ educational experience in the 22-bed medical-surgical and 18-bed medical-neuro ICUs at UPMC Mercy, including input on CCM topics of interest for lectures, barriers to education and ways to improve overall educational experience. Based on the results, a set of 15 resident oriented CCM lectures were created, narrated and recorded by the faculty, covering high yield CCM topics. A 40-question pretest (from recorded lecture material) was also conducted before giving curriculum access to the residents. Residents were encouraged to review the lectures asynchronously when their schedule permitted. A post test and post-survey were conducted after 4 months of providing access.

Results: The pre-survey was completed 74% residents (47/63). Majority of them indicated that learning happens through management of sick patients and bedside rounds. The biggest barriers to education were busy days with sick patients, faculty unavailability and significant time spent writing notes by residents. Shock, resuscitation fluids, vasopressors and acute respiratory failure were the top resident choices for lectures. Results of pre and post tests showed modest improvement in scores for all residents. PG Y1 from 43 to 48%, PG Y2 45 to 53%, PG Y3- 45 to 60%. Post-survey was completed by 54% residents, majority of them (82%) indicated the quality of recorded lectures as excellent to very good, 54% watched between 6-10 lectures completely, hurdles for not watching all were competing tasks like clinical duties, research work etc. Majority indicated that online curriculum has no negative impact on bedside and didactic lectures and indicated to add more advanced CCM topics in future.

Conclusions: Asynchronous online CCM education curriculum can enhance overall educational experience of residents but will require continuous encouragement from faculty, feedback, assesing progress and barriers.