Child Sexual Abuse Module in the Child Abuse Pediatrics Curriculum for Physicians (CAP-CuP)

Child sexual abuse afflicts over 50,000 children in the United States per year but is undertaught in medical training.

We designed an interactive module on child sexual abuse as part of a core curriculum in child abuse pediatrics. The module was targeted toward physicians who treat children, at any stage of training (i.e., from medical students to practicing physicians). We evaluated the module in three ways: presentation to an audience of pediatric practitioners at a continuing medical education (CME) conference to solicit qualitative feedback; presentation to an audience of family medicine residents with a short pre- and postmodule assessment measuring confidence and knowledge; and presentation to a small group of medical students, with the same pre- and postmodule assessment. After completion of the module, participants were provided with the 2024 revised Sexual Abuse and Assault Pocket Tool as an adjunct for clinical use, reflecting the latest US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Participants in the three presentations included 39 pediatric practitioners at the CME conference, 19 family medicine residents at their required educational conference, and five medical students participating in a child abuse elective. Qualitative feedback from the CME audience was favorable, and participants' knowledge scores in the resident and medical student audiences increased from before to after the module.

This interactive module about child sexual abuse has received favorable qualitative and quantitative feedback from a variety of pediatric practitioners, ranging from medical students to physicians.