A Smartphone Resource for Just-in-Time Medical Student Teaching by Emergency Medicine Residents

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Emergency Medicine
• Digital Health

Background:

• The emergency department (ED) environment presents challenges to effective medical student education by residents.
• Just-in-time teaching (JITT) offers a solution for education within time constraints.
• Mobile applications are increasingly used for medical diagnosis and education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the feasibility and impact of a free open-access medical education (FOAM) smartphone application on resident teaching of medical students in the ED.
• To assess if the app improves the quality and frequency of teaching.

Main Methods:

• Development of a smartphone app-based teaching resource for residents and students.
• Training on app integration into clinical workflow.
• Observational pre/post-study design using surveys to assess self- and student-reported teaching frequency and quality.

Main Results:

• 59% of residents used the app at least once per shift.
• 60% of app-using residents reported increased teaching frequency; 80% reported increased teaching quality.
• Significant increase in positive perceptions of evidence-based teaching resources (p = 0.01), but no other significant differences in teaching perceptions.

Conclusions:

• Just-in-time teaching using a smartphone app is feasible for emergency medicine residents.
• Residents perceive improvements in teaching frequency and quality.
• Further research with larger sample sizes, qualitative feedback, and objective learning measures is needed.