Abusive Bruising and Cutaneous Mimics Module in the Child Abuse Pediatrics Curriculum for Physicians (CAP-CuP)

Despite the extensive amount of literature available on bruising and child abuse, there are few open access teaching materials on this topic.

An interactive module on abusive bruising and cutaneous mimics was created as part of a comprehensive child maltreatment curriculum. The module was evaluated in four formats: pilot presentation to a large audience of pediatric practitioners at a CME conference; presentation to an audience of family medicine residents; individual, self-paced completion by a large cohort of medical students; and presentation by a family medicine resident to a group of colleagues, to evaluate the accessibility of presentation by a non-child abuse pediatrician. In all formats, the module took 45-60 minutes to complete. Module effectiveness was evaluated with pre- and postmodule assessments.

The CME conference audience (n = 137) provided favorable feedback about the content; four of 51 anonymous comments focused on areas for growth, which were used to improve the content. Among in-person resident (n = 18) and asynchronous medical student (n = 300) participants, increases in confidence were negligible but knowledge scores notably increased from pre- to postmodule, changing from a median of 25% to 100% and median of 50% to 100%, respectively. In evaluating accessibility, the presenting resident commented on increased engagement, ability to gauge the audience's understanding, and ease of use of the script and technical guide.

This interactive, versatile module on abusive bruising and cutaneous mimics was well-received and effective at increasing short-term knowledge among medical student and physician audiences.