Board review course effect on resident in-training examination

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Emergency Medicine Training
• Assessment and Evaluation

Background:

• The national in-training examination assesses emergency medicine residents' knowledge for independent practice.
• Administered annually by the American Board of Emergency Medicine, it's crucial for resident evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a 40-hour board review lecture course on emergency medicine residents' in-training examination performance.
• Assessing if intensive review impacts national percentile rankings.

Main Methods:

• A 40-hour lecture course was delivered over 8 weeks prior to the 2006 examination.
• Mandatory attendance (≥70%) was required.
• A positive outcome was defined as a ≥10% increase in national percentile rank; residents without a prior year's score were excluded.

Main Results:

• Only 1 out of 16 residents (6.25%) achieved a ≥10% increase in their national percentile rank.
• For PGY2 residents, 12.5% showed improvement, while 0% of PGY3 residents did.
• Confidence intervals indicated no statistically significant positive effect.

Conclusions:

• A 40-hour board review lecture course demonstrated no positive effect on improving emergency medicine residents' in-training examination scores.
• The intensive review format did not yield measurable benefits in national percentile rankings.