The effect of an anaphylaxis guideline presentation on the knowledge level of residents

To determine the effects of an anaphylaxis guideline presentation in residency training, which is an important period for having skilled and knowledgable doctors in the future and see how the residents' level of knowledge changes after presentation. The study is the first in Turkey to identify ways to integrate clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in residency training.

In this interventional study to evaluate a continuous medical education (CME) intervention without a comparison group, a clinical practice guidelines on diagnosis and management of anaphylaxis was presented to the Family Medicine and paediatrics residents at the Ankara Training and Research Hospital, by a specialist in paediatric allergy. The presentation was done within routine training sessions. A test was applied before and 10 weeks after the presentation. Electronic sources and hard copies were used for dissemination. The results were analysed with SPSS 15.0. The categorical data was analysed with Fisher's Exact test and the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the groups. The threshold for statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.

The post-test scores were 58.2/100 for family physicians and 71.7/100 for paediatricians. For both pre- and post-test, paediatricians had significantly higher scores than the family physicians (p < 0.05). On the other hand, the family physicians had significantly higher post-test scores than their own pre-test scores (p < 0.05), while there was no significant increase in the scores of the paediatricians (p > 0.05).

The study adds to limited information on the effects of clinical practice guidelines in Turkey. It shows us that the awareness of CPGs is low among physicians, and further research is needed to determine the potential role of clinical practice guidelines in continuous medical education. Physicians need a better training about how to manage anaphylaxis, and the best methods to identify their training needs must be determined.