Role of grand rounds in the education of hospital doctors

Abstract

The educational role of grand rounds in continuing medical education of junior hospital doctors is unclear. In this article, the authors examine the benefit for junior doctors of attending grand rounds by assessing a groups' knowledge a week before, and 4 days after a grand round. The scores obtained were compared between pre- and post-grand round periods and between grand round attenders (fully or partly) and non-attenders.

The Effectiveness of Grand Rounds Lectures in a Community-Based Teaching Hospital

“…The target audience of these lectures, however, is often junior surgical residents in training who obviously do not yet require CME credits. 8,12,14 The survey given with our test found a similar opinion as 38% felt that junior residents were the most likely to benefit from the presentations ( Table 2). When asked if participants should still receive CME credit for grand rounds attendance, 64% answered "yes," however, 19% had "no response," and 17% answered "no."…”

“…Nonattenders had nearly identical scores on the pre grand round and post grand round tests. 14 The reason for the lack of correlation in the current study is not known. One possible explanation may be that although there was variation in attendance, it was not sufficient to identify a difference.…”

Does Self-Assessment Improve the Effectiveness of Grand Rounds Lectures in a Community-Based Teaching Hospital?

“…Nonattenders had nearly identical scores on the pregrand round and postgrand round tests. 14 The current study found that time elapsed from presentation to testing of recall was significant; however, there was an inverse relationship, as questions from older presentations were answered correctly more often than recent presentations (Table 4 and Fig. 2).…”

“…As discussed above, limited data exists as the 2 previous studies showing an association between attendance and knowledge were based on a week of follow-up. 13,14 Participation in the SA questions appeared to significantly improve scores as attendees who routinely participated in the SA questions scored 50% higher than those who did not (59.6% vs. 38.3%; p o 0.0001). This finding supports previous research on adult learning that has shown that knowledge is improved *Derived from a generalized linear mixed effects model with a random intercept to account within subject correlation while controlling for when the lecture related to the question was presented, whether the question is journal club, whether the question is the emphasized topic (i.e., trauma and burn) and speaker.…”

“…Few studies have been published that objectively quantify the efficacy of grand rounds in recall of information. [13][14][15] One parameter traditionally thought to be important is the time elapsed from presentation of material to testing of recall. 16 A previous study by Agee et al, 15 however, showed no significant correlation between chronology of the questions and a correct answer.…”