The journal of education in perioperative medicine : JEPM
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J Educ Perioper Med · Jul 2012
The impact of an ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia workshop on resident knowledge: a pilot study.
There has been a rapid growth in the use of ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia in the past decade. Residency programs have been trying to find the best way to teach these newer techniques. Our department decided to develop a teaching workshop for our residents with the purpose of improving knowledge and skills in ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia. The hypothesis was that the workshop would improve overall knowledge of ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia as determined by a test developed for this activity. In addition, the goal was to help improve imaging and technical skills. ⋯ Both CA1 and CA3 resident post-test scores improved at the end of the ultrasound guided regional workshop. Our study showed a 68% improvement in test scores, which is larger than the 50% improvement previously reported. These results show that fast learning can occur in this type of setting. Furthermore, knowledge acquired during the workshop was retained when CA1 residents were re-tested one year after the workshop. The ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia workshop will become part of the didactic series for our CA1 residents and will be a required learning activity. Additional work still needs to be done to find out the best way to test knowledge and skill outcomes in residents learning new technology and techniques.