CRISP: An Inpatient Pediatric Curriculum for Family Medicine Residents Using Clinical Reasoning and Illness Scripts

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Pediatrics
• Clinical Reasoning

Background:

• Clinical reasoning is crucial for patient safety and medical education but difficult to teach.
• Illness scripts aid clinical reasoning but haven't been applied to pediatric curricula.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate CRISP (Clinical Reasoning with Illness Scripts in Pediatrics), a novel curriculum for pediatric rotations.
• To assess the feasibility, acceptability, and impact of CRISP on resident knowledge.

Main Methods:

• CRISP curriculum: four 1-hour sessions using clinical reasoning and illness scripts for common pediatric chief complaints.
• Multisite evaluation over 6 months with family medicine residents and pediatric hospitalists.
• Pre-/posttest knowledge assessment for four chief complaints.

Main Results:

• CRISP format was preferred over traditional lectures by residents and hospitalists.
• Statistically significant increases in resident knowledge for all four chief complaints (e.g., respiratory distress: 72% to 92%).
• Feasible and acceptable for learners and instructors.

Conclusions:

• CRISP offers a novel instructional approach for pediatric hospitalists.
• It effectively enhances family medicine resident knowledge of pediatric diagnoses associated with common chief complaints.