Clinical trial NCT03349541: Paediatric Resident Complex Care Curriculum RCT
Official title: A Multicenter Randomized Trial of Curricular Modules in the Care of Children With Medical Complexity for Paediatric Residents
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Complex Care
Medical Education
Pediatric Residents
Children With Medical Complexity
Lead sponsor: The Hospital for Sick Children
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
name: Montreal Children's Hospital of the MUHC
First posted: 2017-11-21
Enrollment: 36
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Medical and technological advances have resulted in a growing cohort of children with medical complexity (CMC), many of whom would not have survived previously and are living and thriving within the community. These families have unique needs that have previously not been taught in the typical training programs for paediatricians. The goal of this project is to develop an evaluation of a national complex care curriculum and to identify whether dedicated educational modules have an impact on improving clinical performance and resident self-efficacy.

Detailed description: Rationale:

A structured program evaluation considering a hierarchy of outcomes is essential to determine whether improved training in complex care is associated with increased skills in this area, and whether these skills transfer to a clinical setting where they will influence quality of care for CMC.

A paediatric resident's sense of self-efficacy, or perceived capability, in caring for CMC is therefore important to foster for the graduating paediatrician to assume a leadership role in coordinating care, co-developing goals of care with families, advocating in the face of health challenges, and ultimately striving for high-quality clinical care for CMC.

We anticipate that participation in a complex care curriculum will result in sustained high performance on simulated clinical scenarios in complex care and increased resident self-efficacy in caring for CMC, compared to paediatric residents that have not participated in the curriculum. This study will examine if a standardized complex care curriculum for paediatric residents has a positive effect on the acquisition of key competencies in the care of CMC using a rigorous experimental research design. To our knowledge, this is the first national, standardized, population-specific curriculum for Canadian paediatric residents to be developed and evaluated with this systematic approach.

Study Objectives:

The overarching aim of this project is to develop a robust evaluation of the national complex care curriculum, and identify whether dedicated educational modules have an impact on improving clinical performance and resident self-efficacy.

Primary Research Question:

What is the comparative effectiveness of participation in a standardized curriculum on acquisition of clinical skills in complex care for paediatric residents, relative to paediatric residents receiving a standard educational session not related to complex care, evaluated by OSCE scores in a complex care scenario?

Secondary Objectives:

To explore changes in paediatric residents' sense of self-efficacy and comfort in caring for CMC following participation in the curriculum using semi-structured interviews.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Residents in their 1st to 4th postgraduate year of training in paediatrics (general paediatric stream and paediatric neurology stream who have regular attendance at the academic half-days), enrolled at the University of Toronto or the University of Ottawa.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Residents who are enrolled in a subspecialty residency training

Primary outcomes:
measure: Acquisition of clinical skills in Complex Care
timeFrame: Within 1-3 months from complex care educational training (day of the scheduled OSCE examination)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Resident self-efficacy in the care of Children with Medical Complexity
timeFrame: Within 4 months from the complex care educational training
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Ottawa
country: Canada
facility: Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
state: Ontario
city: Toronto
country: Canada
facility: The Hospital for Sick Children
state: Ontario
Study officials:
References: