Journal of clinical rheumatology : practical reports on rheumatic & musculoskeletal diseases
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During a 4-week rheumatology elective at our institution, opportunities for internal medicine residents to perform arthrocentesis were limited, particularly for sites other than the knee. Consequently, residents were inadequately prepared and had less self-confidence to perform such procedures. To overcome these educational deficiencies, an arthrocentesis workshop was developed. We report our quality improvement data that was collected during the first year of workshop implementation. ⋯ The arthrocentesis workshop provided a solid foundation from which trainees can learn key concepts of joint injection, increase their self-confidence and refine their motor skills. The accuracy of resident self-reported confidence is poor and should therefore be used only to complement other means of competency assessment and medical knowledge acquisition.