Effectiveness of hands-on tutoring and guided self-directed learning versus self-directed learning alone to educate critical care fellows on mechanical ventilation - a pilot project.

Background: Physicians require extensive training to achieve proficiency in mechanical ventilator (MV) management of the critically ill patients. Guided self-directed learning (GSDL) is usually the method used to learn. However, it is unclear if this is the most proficient approach to teaching mechanical ventilation to critical care fellows. We, therefore, investigated whether critical care fellows achieve higher scores on standardized testing and report higher satisfaction after participating in a hands-on tutorial combined with GSDL compared to self-directed learning alone.

Methods: First-year Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) fellows (=6) and Critical Care Internal Medicine (CCIM) (=8) fellows participated. Satisfaction was assessed using the Likert scale. MV knowledge assessment was performed by administering a standardized 25-question multiple choice pre- and posttest. For 2 weeks the CCIM fellows were exposed to GSDL, while the PCCM fellows received hands-on tutoring combined with GSDL.

Results: Ninety-three percentage (6 PCCM and 7 CCIM fellows, total of 13 fellows) completed all evaluations and were included in the final analysis. CCIM and PCCM fellows scored similarly in the pretest (64% vs. 52%, =0.13). Following interventions, the posttest scores increased in both groups. However, no significant difference was observed based on the interventions (74% vs. 77%, =0.39). The absolute improvement with the hands-on-tutoring and GSDL group was higher than GSDL alone (25% vs. 10%, =0.07). Improved satisfaction scores were noted with hands-on tutoring.

Conclusions: Hands-on tutoring combined with GSDL and GSDL alone were both associated with an improvement in posttest scores. Absolute improvement in test and satisfaction scores both trended higher in the hands-on tutorial group combined with GSDL group.