Introduction Musculoskeletal (MSK) complaints and injuries account for a significant percentage of presenting chief complaints to the emergency department in the United States (US). Despite the prevalence of disease and economic impact on the US healthcare system, there is a documented deficiency in MSK education at all training and practicing levels in the US medical system. The purpose of this study is to determine MSK knowledge acquisition after an orthopedic or primary care sports medicine (PCSM) rotation in three emergency medicine (EM) residency programs at a single institution. Methods A total of 115 EM post-graduate year 1 (PGY-1) residents participated in and completed this study over five academic years. Based on existing residency program curricula, the participants were categorized into two groups. One group completed a traditional four-week Orthopedic Surgery rotation and the other group completed a four-week Sports Medicine rotation. The validated written Freedman and Bernstein MSK examination (FB-MSK) was administered to all participants at the start of residency and at completion of their rotation. Fifty-nine of the participants participated in a longitudinal secondary study over five academic years. The FB-MSK was offered to all participants every year following the completion of their rotation during their residency. Results Post-rotation scores improved regardless of which group the resident belonged to. The orthopedic group improved an average of 3.11 points (p = <0.0001, CI 2.39 to 3.82) and the average improvement in the PCSM group was 3.97 points (p = <0.0001, CI 2.81 to 5.83). The post-rotation scores were similar regardless of the group (p = 0.4287, CI -0.73 to 1.70). The amount of improvement in scores between the two groups was not statistically significant (p = 0.209, CI -0.49 to 2.21). Of the longitudinal participants, PGY-3+ significantly scored higher than PGY-1 (p = 0.0325, 95% CI 0.165 to 3.658). Conclusion Regardless of rotation type, MSK knowledge acquisition appears to significantly improve. EM senior residents demonstrate significant MSK knowledge acquisition during residency. Further studies on a multi-institutional level are needed to account for MSK curriculum variability in residency programs.
Keywords: assessment; curriculum; education; emergency medicine; freedman; musculoskeletal knowledge; orthopedics; sports medicine.
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