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. 2024 Jan-Feb;24(1):3-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2023.05.014. Epub 2023 May 28.

Association Between In-Training Exam Scores and Clinical Exposure During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Priyanka Rao  1 , Katherine Jordan  2 , Heather Burrows  3 , Lauren Helms  3 , Rebecca Latch  4 , Rebecca Perin  4 , Michael Andrew Crawford  5 , Daniel Kang  5 , Andrew Morgan  6 , Gary L Beck Dallaghan  7 , Eric Zwemer  2
Affiliations

Association Between In-Training Exam Scores and Clinical Exposure During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Priyanka Rao et al. Acad Pediatr. 2024 Jan-Feb.

Abstract

Background: We sought to evaluate changes in In-Training Examination (ITE) scores and associations with clinical work during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized that residents saw a decrease in clinical encounters during the pandemic and that this would be associated with smaller gains in ITE scores.

Methods: We compared ITE score changes with data on patient notes for three classes of pediatric residents at four residency programs: one not exposed to the pandemic during their intern year who entered residency in 2018, one partially exposed to COVID-19 in March of their intern year (2019-2020), and one that was fully exposed to the pandemic, starting residency in June of 2020.

Results: ITE scores on average improved from the PGY1 to PGY2 year in the "no covid" and "partial COVID" cohorts. The "full COVID" cohort had little to no improvement, on average. The total number of patient encounters was not associated with a change in ITE scores from PGY1 to PGY2. There was a small but statistically significant association between change in ITE score and number of inpatient H+P notes.

Conclusions: A drop in ITE scores occurred in pediatric residents who entered residency during the COVID-19 pandemic. This change was largely unrelated to clinical encounter number changes.

Keywords: COVID-19; education; in training exam; pediatric residency.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no conflicts of interest, competing interests, or corporate sponsors.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
ITE score change between PGY1 and PGY2 year by program and cohort.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number of patient encounters per resident by encounter type, program and cohort. Note log scale on y-axis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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