Bridging the Gap: A Pilot Study of a Health Care Transition Podcast Curriculum and Standardized Patient Case for...

Introduction Pediatric to adult health care transition (HCT) is critical to maintaining the health and wellness of patients, and pediatric and adult providers often do not feel prepared to shepherd patients through this process. Methods  We designed an HCT curriculum consisting of nine podcasts paired with existing ambulatory experiential learning opportunities for internal medicine-pediatric residents (n=6). Before and after the curriculum we evaluated resident HCT self-assessment and resident performance working with a standardized patient (SP) and standardized parent in a novel objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) station designed to assess HCT skills. Results Residents improved in all HCT self-assessment goals (Likert 1-5; average score increasing from 2.4 to 3.93; p= 0.0002) and in their overall OSCE performance (Likert 1-5; average score increasing from 2.6 to 4.1; p=0.002). Conclusion By combining portable didactic educational materials with intentional experiential learning opportunities, the HCT curriculum herein described improved residents' knowledge and skills related to helping adolescent and young adult patients through HCT. This curriculum could be easily adapted for implementation at other institutions and across disciplines. In addition, we offer a standardized patient case for use in assessing HCT skills.