Sum It Up for Me: A Novel Workshop in the Synthesis of Comprehensive Summary Statements for Pediatric Residents

The ACGME requires progressive monitoring of pediatric trainees' clinical reasoning. Creation of summary statements is a core clinical reasoning skill because it requires learners to prioritize patient information and express their problem representation. There is scarce formal training on the formulation of summary statements for pediatricians. We developed a workshop that provides training in developing summary statements, with the goal of increased knowledge, confidence, and skills in creating summary statements.

The 1-hour workshop consisted of a didactic session and skills practice for creation and evaluation of summary statements. The workshop was assessed for improvement in confidence and knowledge through a pre/post workshop survey and for skills using a previously published rubric.

Twenty-four first-year pediatric trainees participated in the session. There was a 33% relative improvement in trainees' confidence in developing and assessing summary statements (p < .001, 95% CI, 0.0-1.0 for development; p < .001, 95% CI, 1.0-2.0 for assessment). There was a 26% increase in knowledge of components of a summary statement (p < .05). There was a statistically significant improvement in summary statement score before the workshop to immediately after: 4.40 (SD = 1.47) versus 5.60 (SD = 1.34), respectively (p < .05).

Our novel workshop demonstrated improvement in confidence in developing and assessing summary statements, improved knowledge of recommended components of a summary statement, and resulted in a statistically significant improvement in the quality of summary statements. This clinical reasoning workshop improved confidence and objectively assessed crucial clinical reasoning skills.