102 Self-Directed Learning Versus a Structured Cme Course to Assess Physicians' Knowledge of Sedation

Pediatric sedation guidelines were developed for a tertiary care Pediatric Emergency Department and a continuing medical education course in Pediatric Sedation was organized to facilitate physicians' education. A needs assessment survey and focus group discussions were conducted to ensure compatibility with educational needs of the target audience.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a sedation course to improve physician knowledge on pediatric procedural sedation practices and guidelines versus individual learning.

Staff Physicians and fellows were invited to attend a 4-hour multi-faceted sedation course. All physicians received the course material for individual study two weeks prior to the course. All consenting physicians were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Group 1 (n=24) was assigned the multiple-choice exam without receiving any formal teaching (pre-test). Group 2 (n=23) wrote the exam after attending the course (post-test). The course consisted of didactic teaching and small group cased-based discussions. The multiple choice questions were piloted for construct and content validity. Means and standard deviation of multiple choice exam scores for both groups were calculated. Student's t test was used to compare scores of the multiple-choice examination.

The group mean of pre-test scores, 71.1% (SD 11.8, range 50–86.6%), was significantly different (p<0.0001) from the group mean of the post-test scores, 85.1% (SD 6.0, range of 75.8–96.5%).

A multi-faceted sedation course is more effective in improving physician knowledge and understanding of sedation guidelines than unstructured self-education as measured by a multiple-choice exam.