An Intervention to Promote Healthcare Transition Planning Among Pediatric Residents

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Healthcare
• Transition Medicine
• Medical Education

Background:

• Poorly planned healthcare transition (HCT) for adolescents and young adults with special healthcare needs (AYASHCN) leads to worse health outcomes.
• Pediatric providers often lack adequate training in HCT planning for AYASHCN.
• A Transition Planning Tool (TPT) was developed to aid HCT planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate an educational intervention designed to increase pediatric residents' utilization of the electronic medical record-based TPT.
• To assess the impact of the intervention on residents' engagement in and comfort with HCT planning.

Main Methods:

• A multimodal curriculum including training, demonstrations, prompts, and case discussions was implemented during an Adolescent Medicine Rotation.
• A quasi-experimental design compared residents who received the intervention (n=42) with a historical control group (n=23) with minimal TPT training.
• Pre/post-rotation assessments measured residents' perceived importance of, comfort with, and self-reported HCT planning activities.

Main Results:

• Intervention residents were significantly more likely to use the TPT (98% vs. 37%, p < .001) and used it more frequently (mean 5.5 vs. 2.6 uses, p < .001).
• Residents reported increased perceived importance of and engagement in transition planning activities post-intervention (p < .001).
• 91% of intervention residents reported increased comfort with HCT planning.

Conclusions:

• A targeted educational intervention effectively improved pediatric residents' use of the TPT.
• The intervention enhanced residents' engagement in HCT planning activities and their confidence in managing transitions for AYASHCN.