Background/Case Studies: Blood products (red blood cells [RBCs], platelets, cryoprecipitate, fresh frozen plasma, whole blood) are ordered at pediatric hospitals and infusion clinics to treat children in settings of trauma, surgical procedures, oncology, hematology, transplantation, and critical illness. Transfusions are common practice at academic medical centers administered across all age groups and medical conditions. Despite this, pediatric resident trainees receive limited to no education in transfusion medicine. This lack of knowledge has been well documented in the literature, with pediatric resident trainees scoring poorly on the BEST-TEST3, a validated tool developed to assess transfusion medicine knowledge among pediatric resident trainees. A needs assessment administered to 10 Vanderbilt University Medical Center pediatric residents demonstrated residents do not feel comfortable ordering blood products, reviewing the risks associated with blood product transfusions and associated transfusion reactions, with the majority stating they have an inability to teach other residents about blood products, and 50% of respondents incorrectly answering fund of knowledge questions about transfusion medicine. The study aim was to assess if a micro-learning curriculum can improve knowledge of transfusion medicine among pediatric resident trainees.
Study
Design/Methods: In this IRB-approved study, participants received twelve (12) asynchronous learning modules over 4 weeks via a mobile-friendly link that can be completed on a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Participants were invited to participate during select rotations. Twenty-seven (27) participants were enrolled. Each module was composed of a short video and summary teaching points, with a total time of 15 minutes to complete each module. A comparison of BEST-TEST3 pre- and post-test was compared per participant via t-tests to assess for significance of change in score (using a two-sided p-value of 0.05).
Results/Findings: Twenty-seven pediatric resident trainees (33% of total residency) enrolled in the micro-learning curriculum with fourteen residents initiating the first module. Five pediatric resident trainees completed all twelve modules. Each module’s individual pre-test and post-test scores (derived from the BEST-TEST3) improved in all modules with the exception of the introduction modules (Figure 1). When evaluating the overall BEST-TEST3 score on the pre-test was 41% with a post-test score of 72% (p=0.005). Conclusions: Micro-learning is an educational modality that can be utilized to deliver content to pediatric trainees that provides increased engagement and real-time feedback on evaluation with the post-test questions. Micro-learning continues to demonstrate the potential to deliver educational material typically delivered in a didactic that can be distributed to trainees that are on various rotations and schedules.
