499 - Reviving Pediatric Resident Educational Conferences in a Post-Pandemic Era

Monday, May 1, 2023

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM ET

Poster Number: 499
Publication Number: 499.422

Elizabeth L. Nguyen, Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Palo Alto, CA, United States; Jennifer L. Sedler, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, Palo Alto, CA, United States; Ryan R. Lion, Stanford University School of Medicine, Mountain View, CA, United States; Sarah Y. Afzal, Stanford Children’s Hospital, Palo Alto, CA, United States; Victor Ritter, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States; Kevin Kuo, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States; Caroline Rassbach, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States

Presenting Author(s)

Elizabeth L. Nguyen, MD (she/her/hers)

Chief Resident; Clinical Instructor
Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
Palo Alto, California, United States

Background:

Since the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, education of pediatrics trainees has been impacted due to decreased patient encounters and the shift to virtual didactics. In 2021, pediatrics saw a decline in pass rates for the American Board of Pediatrics Initial Certifying Examination, the exam used to assess knowledge needed to safely practice independently. When examining how education has changed at our institution, we noted that conference attendance dwindled, participation decreased, and formal educational time was seen as less protected due to several factors identified by residents on our ACGME survey. This highlighted a need for renewed emphasis and culture change around protected educational time for our trainees.

Objective: Apply Kotter's 8-step change management model (KCMM) to our residency program's educational conferences to: 1) increase and maintain attendance at morning report and noon conference and 2) improve residents' perception about the culture of educational conferences.

Design/Methods:

This is an IRB-exempt, mixed methods study of Stanford Pediatric residents from June 2022 - June 2023. Based on KCMM, we communicated the need and vision for change with key stakeholders, recruited resident and faculty Conference Champions to promote change, provided incentives such as coffee and CME credit, and addressed barriers by sending reminders about protected educational time to other care team members. Attendance, conference characteristics, and hospital team census data were recorded daily. Residents were surveyed every 2 months, evaluating their perception of culture using Likert scales and free response questions. We calculated the weekly average proportion of residents who attended each conference. Logistic regressions investigated which factors contributed to greater conference attendance. We also calculated total scores on our Conference Culture survey and compared mean pre- (June 2022) and post- (Sept 2022) scores; scores could range from 9 to 45.

Results:

Data has been analyzed through October 2022. 44% (46/105) of residents responded to the pre-survey and 65% (74/113) responded to the post-survey. Conference attendance after intervention initially improved for all levels and has had a stable retention for PGY3+ attendance, but a 0.5% weekly decrease in PGY1 and PGY2 attendance. The perception of culture of educational conferences improved by 30%, from 27 (6) to 35 (6), P< 0.001.

Conclusion(s): After making changes using KCMM, perception of conference culture and attendance improved. Data collection will continue through 2023.