Implementing a hybrid web-based curriculum for an elective medical student clerkship in a busy surgical intensive care unit (ICU): effect on test and satisfaction scores.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a hybrid traditional and web-based curriculum improves test scores and enrollment among senior medical students in an elective critical care rotation.

DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective study in a surgical ICU at a major academic center.

SUBJECTS: One hundred twenty-one fourth year medical students completing an elective ICU clerkship between 2007 and 2010.

INTERVENTIONS: Pre-test and post-test during a 4-week rotation.

METHODS: We implemented a hybrid curriculum that involved both traditional teaching methods and a new online core curriculum that incorporating audio, video, and text using screen capture technology. The curriculum was hosted on a secure online portal called ICON (Desire2Learn Inc., Ontario, Canada). The core curriculum covered topics that were considered essential to meet the didactic objectives of the rotation. MEASUREMENTS AND EVALUATIONS: A pre-test was administered online on day 1 of the rotation. A post-test was administered on the second to last day of the rotation. Both tests were composed of 20 questions randomly chosen from a question bank of 100 questions. The tests are managed (administering, grading, and reporting) exclusively online.

RESULTS: One hundred twenty-one medical students have successfully completed the clerkship since implementing the new curriculum. Each group of students showed an improvement in the mean post-test score by at least 17%+ to 10%. The satisfaction scores of the clerkship improved consistently from 2007 and is currently rated at 4.31 ± 0.85 (on a 5-point scale). The rotation is in the top 25(th) percentile of all clinical clerkships offered at the University of Iowa.

CONCLUSION: A systematically implemented hybrid web-based critical care curriculum can improve knowledge based test scores and overall clerkship satisfaction scores in a busy surgical ICU.