PEARL: Pharmacy Education Applied to Resident Learners

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Pharmacy Practice
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Emergency medicine residents (EMRs) often train with emergency medicine pharmacists (EMPs).
• Postgraduate EMRs may practice without EMP support, necessitating independent pharmaceutical knowledge.
• A novel pharmacy curriculum was developed for PGY-1 EMRs to address this gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of a novel pharmacy curriculum for PGY-1 EMRs.
• To evaluate improvements in knowledge and self-perceived comfort with EM-specific pharmaceuticals.
• To determine the impact of the curriculum on resident preparedness for independent practice.

Main Methods:

• A controlled study involving 25 residents across two EM programs in Detroit, MI.
• One program served as the control group, the other as the intervention group.
• Primary outcome: pre- and post-curriculum knowledge assessment scores; Secondary outcome: pre- and post-curriculum self-perceived knowledge survey responses.

Main Results:

• No significant pre-curriculum differences in assessment scores or survey responses between groups.
• Post-curriculum assessment scores and survey responses showed statistically significant improvements in the intervention group.
• The increase in assessment scores from pre- to post-curriculum was significantly greater in the intervention group.

Conclusions:

• The novel pharmacy curriculum effectively enhanced PGY-1 EMRs' knowledge and comfort with EM pharmaceuticals.
• Further research is needed to investigate the curriculum's impact on patient care and medical error rates.
• This curriculum provides a valuable educational tool for preparing EMRs for practice settings with limited pharmacist support.