• Vicente Garcia-Tomas, Deborah Schwengel, Jean-Pierre P Ouanes, Sarah Hall, and Marie N Hanna.
• Middle East J Anaesthesiol. 2014 Feb 1;22(4):419-27.

BackgroundAlthough residents in anesthesia are confident in performing neuraxial anesthesia, many are not confident in performing peripheral nerve blocks. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured regional anesthesia teaching program in a large academic medical center.MethodsResidents participated in regional anesthesia didactics that took place in a unique resident education program scheduled during two fully protected teaching days a month. The curriculum included hands-on cadaver workshops in the anatomy lab, hands-on ultrasound workshops, hands-on nerve stimulator and surface anatomy workshops, and simulator sessions related to complications of regional anesthesia. Before beginning the formal regional anesthesia teaching program, residents completed a pretest composed of 25 multiple choice questions (MCQ) and a three-section observed standardized clinical examination (OSCE). Seven months later, approximately 1 month after completion of the regional anesthesia curriculum, the residents were evaluated again with the exact same tests. Pretest and post-test results for both the MCQ and the OSCE were compared by using a paired t-test for statistical means.ResultsPost-test results were significantly improved (P < 0.05) across all clinical anesthesia (CA) years and for both the MCQ and OSCE examinations. Post-test results were also significantly improved (P < 0.05) across all CA years for each of the three sections of the OSCE.ConclusionThe formal regional anesthesia teaching program developed by the departmental faculty was effective in improving resident knowledge.

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