Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellows' Procedural Experiences During Training

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Pediatric Emergency Medicine
• Clinical Skills Training

Background:

• Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) fellows require procedural experience for competence, but opportunities for rare procedures are limited.
• The exact number of procedures needed for skill mastery in PEM remains undefined.
• Increased procedural practice is linked to improved skill development in medical trainees.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the frequency of procedures performed by fellows in accredited Pediatric Emergency Medicine programs.
• To describe current methods used by fellowship programs for tracking trainee procedural experiences.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective, multicenter, cross-sectional study of fellows in ACGME-accredited PEM programs (July 2019-June 2020).
• Data collected on fellow/program demographics, self-reported procedure logs, and electronic medical record documentation.
• Procedures standardized according to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) list.

Main Results:

• 104 fellows from 11 programs submitted logs; 2 sites used electronic medical record tracking.
• Most frequent procedures: medical/trauma resuscitations, procedural sedations, intubations.
• Least frequent procedures: nasal packing, cardiac pacing; most programs rely on fellow self-reporting.

Conclusions:

• PEM fellows do not consistently document all ACGME-required procedures during training.
• Significant variability exists in how PEM fellowship programs track trainee procedural logs.
• Findings suggest a need for enhanced educational curricula and potential ACGME procedure list revisions.