An evaluation of interactive web-based curricula for teaching code status discussions

Teaching resuscitation discussions to medical students and residents is time intensive and should be taught by teachers with competence in this area of clinical practice. There are plenty of data that these discussions are often inadequate, and that communication skills training, while time and faculty intensive, improves these conversations. The role of online instruction in teaching communication skills, such as resuscitation discussions, is not established.

The study objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an interactive online curriculum in teaching code status discussions to third-year medical students at one medical school.

In this study we block randomized third-year medical students to one of two web-based curricula versus a similar written curriculum and used standardized patient scores on a communication exercise to measure differences in performance. We used student surveys to measure student satisfaction with the curricula.

Of 121 students participating in the study between April 2007 and March 2008, 88 were randomized to one of two website formats and 33 to the written curriculum.

We compared average scores on content and communication checklists between groups.

There were no differences between the three groups in the primary outcome of student performance. We could not analyze data on satisfaction with or completion rates for the three curricula due to poor response rates to the student surveys.

This block randomized study of web-based curricula versus a written curriculum did not show differences in student performance in code status discussions. The optimal use of online communication training remains unclear and requires further investigation.