Learner's evaluation in paediatric intensive care unit.

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
• Medical Education
• Physician Extender Performance

Background:

• Assessing knowledge retention after pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) rotations is crucial for resident training.
• Comparing resident performance with physician extenders provides insights into interprofessional competency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the post-PICU rotation performance of pediatric residents and emergency residents on a knowledge-based online test.
• To evaluate the performance of physician extenders relative to residents.

Main Methods:

• A single-center, retrospective quality improvement study was conducted.
• An online test, developed by the Society of Critical Care Medicine, was administered to PGY-2 residents post-PICU rotation (July 2005-June 2008).
• Physician extenders also completed the test once during the study period.

Main Results:

• Emergency residents (N=40) scored an average of 82.3%±8.2, while pediatric residents (N=30) scored 77.3%±10.8 (p=0.03).
• The combined resident average score was 80.1%±9.7.
• Physician extenders (N=7) achieved a comparable average score of 80.1%±6.5.

Conclusions:

• Emergency residents demonstrated slightly superior performance compared to pediatric residents on the pediatric-focused test.
• Physician extenders' knowledge assessment scores were comparable to both individual resident groups and their combined performance.