If You Build It, Will They Come? A Hard Lesson for Enthusiastic Medical Educators Developing a New Curriculum

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Pediatric Residency Training
• Primary Care

Background:

• Primary care is essential in pediatrics, but optimal residency training methods are unclear.
• Effective teaching strategies for primary care during pediatric residency are not well-established.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish and evaluate a novel primary care curriculum for pediatric residents.
• The curriculum was designed using andragogy principles, offering accessible, multi-format clinical content.

Main Methods:

• Kern's model guided curriculum development, implemented in 2013 with weekly emails linking to a learning management system.
• Evaluation involved resident focus groups, pre-/post-surveys, faculty feedback, access logs, and attendance records over three years.

Main Results:

• Residents reported perceived improvements in 37 primary care clinical skills (P < .001).
• Faculty feedback on organization was positive, though patient care limited discussion time.
• However, curriculum access was low: 51% didn't access materials, 51% missed emails, 37% completed quizzes, and conference attendance was 46%.

Conclusions:

• The primary care curriculum, despite lower-than-anticipated resident engagement, led to self-perceived improvements in clinical skills.
• This suggests that even with limited participation, the educational content may positively impact skill development in pediatric residents.