Improving residents' knowledge of arterial and central line placement with a web-based curriculum

Procedural skill is predicated on knowledge. We used a previously validated test to evaluate the impact of a web-based education program on medical residents' knowledge of 2 advanced medical procedures.

We enrolled 210 internal medicine residents at 3 residency programs in a randomized, controlled, educational trial. Study participants completed a 20-item, validated online test of their knowledge of central venous and arterial line (CVL and AL, respectively) placement at baseline and after performing their next 2 procedures (test 1 and test 2). Between test 1 and test 2, participants were randomized to online educational material for CVL insertion, AL insertion, both, or neither. The primary outcome of the study was the difference in test scores between test 1 and test 2 by randomization group.

Though residents in the baseline cohort were confident about their knowledge of procedural technique, their mean test scores were low (62% and 58% in the CVL and AL tests, respectively). Baseline test score correlated with the number of prior procedures performed. Sixty-five residents completed all 3 CVL tests, and 85 residents completed all 3 AL tests. Access to the web-based procedure education was associated with a significant improvement in scores for both the CVL test (effect size, d  =  0.25, P  =  .01) and AL test (d  =  0.52, P < .001).

Web-based procedure training improves knowledge of procedures to a significantly greater extent than performing the procedure alone. Web-based curricula can effectively supplement other methods of skill development.