Teaching Systems-Based Competency in Anesthesiology Residency: Development of an Education and Assessment Tool

Abstract

Background The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires programs to educate and evaluate residents in 6 competencies, including systems-based practice. We designed a survey and assessment tool to address the competency as it pertains to anesthetic drug costs in an academic center. Methods Residents, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and faculty were asked to complete an anesthetic drug-cost survey without relying on reference materials. After a combination of compulsory in-class didactic sessions and web-based education, the participants were asked to design an anesthetic, give example cases, and determine costs. The initial task was repeated 1 year later. Results Our preintervention survey revealed that most practitioners knew very little about anesthetic drug costs, regardless of level of training or degree. All residents completed the mandatory online education tool, more than 80% attended the departmental grand rounds program, and 100% met the goal of designing an anesthetic for all cases within the preset price limit. A repeat of the cost estimate produced an improvement in cost estimates with reduction in variability (P < .05, Student unpaired t test), although estimates of volatile anesthetic and reversal agent costs did not achieve significance at the .05 level for any of the 3 cases. Conclusion Introducing a formalized teaching and assessment tool has improved our residents' understanding of anesthetic drug costs, and improved our ability to teach and assess the systems-based practice competency.

Web-Based Learning for Emergency Airway Management in Anesthesia Residency Training

“…Bello et al [ 9 ] demonstrated that the combination of online lecture slides and videos of difficult airway procedures resulted in an increase in postknowledge test scores and positive satisfaction scores. Soto et al [ 17 ] paired didactic online lectures on anesthesia drug costs with “in-person” presentations to improve knowledge scores. Kopp and Smith [ 14 ] showed improved test scores in regional anesthesia with both case-based and traditional textbook style modules.…”

A retrospective review of required projects in systems-based practice in a single anesthesiology residency: a 10-year experience

“…To address these challenges, a number of authors have provided alternative concepts [2] and various methods of teaching and evaluation [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. One internal medicine's residency review committee created education innovations projects to allow certain residency programs to develop new curricula to teach competencies such as SBP [4].…”

“…It is important for future clinicians to advocate for their patients and identify health care system deficiencies. Residency programs in all disciplines across the United States have developed specific interventions and curricula to teach SBP and have attempted to evaluate residents in this competency domain [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. To date, however, no long-term analysis of SBP projects within a residency program has been performed.…”

Effectiveness of an Educational Handbook in Improving Psychiatry Resident Knowledge of Second-Generation Antipsychotics

“…Notably, in studies that have used more interactive [22] or multi-faceted [23][24][25] educational approaches, improvement in knowledge has been more homogenous among the various knowledge components tested.…”