Abstracts

Rationale Pediatric residency programs are not preparing trainees well to manage patients with seizures and epilepsy.¹ This is particularly important as access to pediatric neurology subspecialty care is limited in much of the country.² Pediatric residents commonly expressed feeling unprepared in assessing and managing neurology patients and expressed a desire for more teaching.³ For adult learners there are a variety of educational methods that support active learning and their success is supported by the neurobiology of learning.⁴ We implemented a six-session curriculum with the goals of improving the knowledge and attitudes needed to effectively identify and treat seizures and epilepsy and increase residents’ comfort with counseling families about these topics.

Methods: A structured seizure and epilepsy curriculum was implemented over the course of one month for the pediatric resident learner using andragogical methods that were supported by multiple learning theories. Instructional methods of didactic presentation, small-group sessions, role play, and simulation were used. A 15 multiple-choice question (MCQ) assessment and 13 statement attitudes inventory (AI) using a Likert scale were given prior to the start of the curriculum and after its completion. A Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test for matched pairs was used to compare the pretest and posttest scores for the MCQ assessment and grouped AI statements. The 13 AI statements also were analyzed individually using McNemar’s test to determine if the proportion of residents with perceived comfort differed after undergoing the curriculum.

Results: Fifty residents completed the pretest; 34 residents completed the posttest; 24 residents completed both. Of the 24, only 19 residents attended at least half of the sessions. The posttest scores were statistically significantly higher than pretest scores for the MCQ assessment, as well as for each of the grouped AI domains (Table 1). There was a statistically significant improvement in the proportion of residents who reported comfort with 12 of the 13 AI statements (Figure 1).

Conclusions: The findings of this study demonstrate that given quality high-impact educational content, pediatric residents knowledge about seizures and epilepsy improve significantly. The importance of closing the knowledge gap and improving pediatric comfort with seizures and epilepsy is essential. Done on a larger scale, this may translate to much needed improvement in access to care for the patients with these disorders.

References:_x000D_ 1. Agarwal RL, Agarwal RR, Sivaswamy L. How Well Are We Preparing Pediatricians to Manage Seizures and Epilepsy? 2014-03-25._x000D_ 2. Kang PB, Bale JF, Jr, Mintz M, et al. The child neurology clinical workforce in 2015: Report of the AAP/CNS Joint Taskforce. Neurology. 2016;87(13):1384-1392._x000D_ 3. Nguyen T, Pavitt S, Wusthoff C, Rassbach C. Breaking a Cycle of Dependence to Improve Neurology Education: A Qualitative Study Exploring Pediatric Residents' Perspectives. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2019;58(11-12):1158-1165._x000D_ 4. Friedlander MJ, Andrews L, Armstrong EG, et al. What can medical education learn from the neurobiology of learning? Acad Med. 2011;86(4):415-420.

Funding: None