Two prospective educational interventions in a neurology residency: effect on RITE performance.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the effect of 2 educational interventions on Residency In-service Training Examination (RITE) scores. Two prospective educational interventions were studied in 2 consecutive neurology resident cohorts from a single program and compared with a historical control. Fourteen PGY 2-4 residents studied neuropharmacology in 2002-2003. Fifteen PGY 2-4 residents studied neuroanatomy in 2003-2004. The historical control were 20 PGY 2-4 residents from 1998-2002. Neuropharmacology educational intervention: residents prepared weekly presentations with weekly written quizzes, with quiz results available to the individual resident and program director. Neuroanatomy educational intervention: resident prepared weekly presentations, but quizzes were team based and oral, requiring resident participation. CONTROL GROUP: attended faculty prepared didactic lectures. Outcome measures were percent correct and yearly change in subset RITE scores. Data was analyzed with analysis of variance methods accounting for multiple measurements. REVIEW SUMMARY: The mean +/- standard error neuropharmacology subset percent correct RITE score was 43.3 +/- 1.94 for the intervention group and 47.3 +/- 1.91 for the control (P = 0.96), while the mean yearly percent correct change was 4.8 +/- 2.43 for the intervention group and 3.5 +/- 1.67 for the control (P = 0.71). The mean neuroanatomy subset percent correct RITE score was 60.3 +/- 3.54 for the intervention group and 50.9 +/- 3.04 for the control (P = 0.02), with a mean yearly percent correct change of 22.4 +/- 5.77 for the intervention group and 9.4 +/- 1.52 for the control (P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: A team-oriented intervention with oral quizzing resulted in improved subset RITE performance.