Mastery learning program to teach sleep study scoring.

Area of Science:

• Sleep Medicine
• Medical Education

Background:

• Polysomnogram scoring is a critical skill for sleep medicine trainees.
• Current assessment relies on subjective faculty evaluation, lacking objective competency measures.
• Accreditation requires trainees to meet specific milestones in polysomnogram interpretation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a computer-based polysomnogram scoring curriculum using mastery learning.
• To compare the effectiveness of this novel curriculum against traditional training methods.
• To assess objective competency achievement in polysomnogram scoring.

Main Methods:

• A mastery learning curriculum with online modules, pre/posttests, and competency assessments was developed.
• Trainees were assigned to either the Mastery Learning Participants (MLP) or Traditional Learning Participants (TLP) group.
• Competency was defined as ≥90% interscorer reliability on 5 studies within 10 attempts.

Main Results:

• Posttest scores were significantly higher in the MLP group (80.9%) compared to the TLP group (76.4%).
• No significant difference was found in the proportion of participants achieving competency (MLP 90.0% vs TLP 97.1%).
• The number of studies required to achieve competency was similar between groups (MLP 7.25 vs TLP 7.41).

Conclusions:

• A computer-based, mastery learning curriculum is effective for teaching polysomnogram scoring.
• This novel approach yields comparable competency outcomes to traditional methods.
• Objective competency assessment and mastery learning provide a structured framework for skill acquisition.