Background The pediatric emergency department (PED) is a unique fast-paced learning environment. Most pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physicians work in academic centers and therefore require specific bedside teaching skills to improve and enhance learners' experiences, yet there is no standardized training in bedside teaching for PEM fellows. We aimed to (1) evaluate whether PEM fellowship programs train their fellows to become bedside teachers through a dedicated curriculum and (2) determine how these programs measure curricular effectiveness. Methods In 2022, we developed and disseminated two separate electronic surveys to PEM fellows and PEM fellowship program directors (PDs) and associate program directors (APDs) through the American Academy of Pediatrics' Section of Emergency Medicine PEM PD Survey Committee. Results One-third of PEM fellows (32.7%, n=69/211) and PEM PDs/APDs (32.5%, n=26/80) completed the surveys. The majority of fellows (59.4%, n=41/69) and PDs/APDs (76.9%, n=20/26) reported that their programs did not have a formal bedside teaching curriculum. Of the respondents, 81.2% (n=56/69) of fellows and 100% of PDs/APDs believed that their programs prepared fellows to be bedside teachers (p-value=0.04). Most fellows (75.4%, n=52/69) expressed interest in working at an academic medical center, with 19.2% (n=10/52) feeling unprepared to be bedside teachers upon completion of the fellowship. Additionally, 19.2% (n=5/26) PDs/APDs, evaluated their bedside teaching curriculum effectiveness. In addition, the majority of fellows (60.9%, n=42/69) and PDs/APDs (61.5%, n=16/26) described clinical expectations and competing fellowship priorities, respectively, as major barriers to learning bedside teaching. Most PDs/APDs (53.8%, n=14/26) stated that they were uncertain on how to create a bedside teaching curriculum. Conclusions While the majority of PEM fellows plan to be academicians, where they will be expected to teach a variety of learners at the bedside, most PEM fellowship programs do not have dedicated bedside teaching curricula. There is a compelling need to investigate how to encourage and implement bedside teaching education into PEM fellowship curricula.
Keywords: bedside teaching; curriculum development; medical education; pediatric emergency medicine; pediatric fellows.
Copyright © 2023, Kling et al.