The Impact of a Concussion Clinic on Family Medicine Resident Education

Given that primary care has been found to be the most likely point of entry into the health care system for concussion patients, diagnosis and management of concussions are vital to the education of family medicine physicians. Studies of primary care residencies reveal a self-perceived deficiency in sports medicine education. This project was designed to determine the effect of a concussion management clinic on family medicine residents' confidence in and personal value placed on diagnosing and managing concussions.

This project was completed in a family medicine residency as a retrospective evaluation of an educational improvement project during the 2016-2017 academic year. The intervention involved implementation of a structured clinical experience focused on management of concussions. Residents were surveyed preintervention, as well as 5 and 11 months postintervention, measuring resident exposure to and confidence in diagnosing and managing concussions.

Residents demonstrated significantly increased confidence in diagnosing concussions and managing complicated concussions following the intervention (both F [2, 84]=3.56, P=0.03). Post hoc analysis indicated the statistical difference was found between preintervention measures and 1 academic year later. The number of concussions seen positively correlated with resident confidence in both diagnosing and managing concussions while personal value remained high.

This project is the first to evaluate the impact of a concussion clinic on resident education, demonstrating significant improvement in multiple areas of concussion education. Replicating the project in other family medicine residencies could be beneficial in determining if this clinic education model improves resident outcomes in other residencies.