473 - Training Development for Pediatric Dose Optimization for Seizures in EMS (PediDOSE) Study: Design and Evaluation of Education Activity for Paramedics

Nationally Emergency Medical Services (EMS) transports 20,000 children annually for active seizures. One-third of these patients arrive at an emergency department with ongoing seizures, and half receive an incorrect dose of seizure abortive medication. The PediDOSE study is implementing prehospital, standardized, age-based midazolam dosing in 20 cities to improve pediatric seizure treatment. Essential for PediDOSE is training paramedics to identify pediatric seizures and understand how to apply the new seizure protocol to manage pediatric seizures.


Objective:

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the curriculum developed to teach paramedics for PediDOSE and to assess paramedic self-efficacy in its use.


 

Design/Methods: Through an Educational Design Research framework, we iteratively designed and developed a blended learning curriculum using an online module and in-person case-based training. Input from paramedic focus groups and EMS medical directors guided curriculum development, and we piloted the curriculum with several paramedics before beginning training at each site. One of the 20 participating cities will be randomly selected every 2 months to transition to standardized age-based dosing, and their paramedics will receive mandatory training. We evaluated the curriculum according to Kirkpatrick’s model to gather data to inform curricular improvement. We administered an electronic survey to assess overall relevance of the curriculum and paramedics’ perceived level of self-efficacy after the pilot and initial in-person case training.

Results:

We collected data on 14 participants. The pilot and initial site training showed paramedics rated overall relevance to their EMS practice at a median 4 out of 5 (interquartile range (IQR) 1.25) with 1= not at all and 5= a great deal. Paramedics reported high self-efficacy after the training in managing a seizing child with this protocol with median 4.5/5 (IQR 1). Paramedics also reported the online module made them feel better prepared to manage the cases during in-person training with median 4.5/5 (IQR 1).


 

Conclusion(s):

We have successfully developed a blended learning curriculum for training paramedics as part of the PediDOSE study. The initial findings show paramedics gain confidence in the management of a seizing child and their knowledge of a new protocol.