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. 2022 Jul 16;32(4):855-864.
doi: 10.1007/s40670-022-01578-x. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Evaluating the Association of a Core EPA-Oriented Patient Handover Curriculum on Medical Students' Self-reported Frequency of Observation and Skill Acquisition

Adam M Garber  1 , Allison R Ownby  2 , Gregory Trimble  3 , Meenakshy K Aiyer  4 , David R Brown  5 , Douglas Grbic  6
Affiliations

Evaluating the Association of a Core EPA-Oriented Patient Handover Curriculum on Medical Students' Self-reported Frequency of Observation and Skill Acquisition

Adam M Garber et al. Med Sci Educ. .

Abstract

Introduction: "Giving or receiving a patient handover to transition patient care responsibility" is one of the thirteen Core Entrustable Professional Activities (Core EPAs) for Entering Residency. However, implementing a patient handover curriculum in undergraduate medical education (UME) remains challenging. Educational leaders in the multi-institutional Core EPA8 pilot workgroup developed a longitudinal patient handover UME curriculum that was implemented at two pilot institutions.

Materials and methods: We utilized multi-school graduation questionnaire data to assess the association of our patient handover curriculum on self-reported frequency of observation/feedback and skill acquisition by comparing data from the shared curriculum schools to data from other Core EPA pilot schools (three schools with school-specific curriculum; five without a dedicated handover curriculum). Questionnaire data from 1,278 graduating medical students of the class of 2020 from all ten Core EPA pilot schools were analyzed.

Results: Graduates from the two medical schools that implemented the shared patient handover curriculum reported significantly greater frequency of handover observation/feedback compared to graduates at the other schools (school-specific curriculum (p < .05) and those without a handover curriculum (p < .05)). Graduates from the two shared approach schools also more strongly agreed that they possessed the skill to perform handovers compared to graduates from the other eight pilot schools that did not implement this curriculum.

Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that the implementation of a multi-institutional Core EPA-based curricular model for teaching and assessing patient handovers was successful and could be implemented at other UME institutions.

Keywords: Core EPA; Curriculum; Patient handover; Workplace-based assessment (WBA).

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Patient handover workplace-based assessment form
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Student handover skill mean rating grouped by frequency of observation/feedback based on AAMC GQ data (N = 1278)1,2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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