Emergency Medicine Oral Case Presentations: Evaluation of a Novel Curriculum

Oral case presentation (OCP) is recognized as a central educational and patient care activity, yet has not been well studied in the emergency medicine (EM) setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a novel curriculum on medical students' EM-OCP skills.

An EM-OCP assessment tool and novel blended curriculum were developed based on results from a Canadian survey of emergency physicians and focus groups with key stakeholders. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 96 clerkship students between 2017 and 2018. Students were randomly assigned into an intervention group where they completed a novel EM-OCP curriculum or a control group without the curriculum. A pretest baseline assessment of students' OCP skills was performed using a standardized patient case at the beginning of their EM rotation. Similarly, all students completed a posttest assessment with a different standardized patient case at the end of their 6-week EM rotation. Audio recordings of pre- and posttests were assessed using the EM-OCP assessment tool by two blinded assessors.

Using the Kruskal-Wallis test, all students demonstrated improvement in EM-OCP skills between their pretest and posttest; however, those who received the curriculum (intervention group) showed significantly greater improvement in "synthesis of information," "management," and "overall entrustment decision" scores.

Implementation of a novel EM-OCP curriculum resulted in improved clinical reasoning and higher entrustment scores. This curriculum could improve OCP performance not only in EM settings but also across specialties where medical students and residents manage critically ill patients.