Preparing Neurology Residents and Advanced Practice Providers for the COVID-19 ICU—A Neurocritical Care Led Intervention

Background and Purpose:With the surge of critically ill COVID-19 patients, neurology and neurosurgery residents and advanced practice providers (APPs) were deployed to intensive care units (ICU) These providers lacked relevant critical care training We investigated whether a focused video-based learning curriculum could effectively teach high priority intensive care topics in this unprecedented setting to these neurology providers Methods:Neurocritical care clinicians led a multidisciplinary team in developing a 2 5-hour lecture series covering the critical care management of COVID-19 patients We examined whether provider confidence, stress, and knowledge base improved after viewing the lectures Results:A total of 88 residents and APPs participated across 2 academic institutions 64 participants (73%) had not spent time as an ICU provider After viewing the lecture series, the proportion of providers who felt moderately, quite, or extremely confident increased from 11% to 72% (60% difference, 95% CI 49-72%) and the proportion of providers who felt nervous/stressed, very nervous/stressed, or extremely nervous/stressed decreased from 78% to 48% (38% difference, 95% CI 26-49%) Scores on knowledge base questions increased an average of 2 5 out of 12 points (SD 2 1;p < 0 001) Conclusion:A targeted, asynchronous curriculum on critical care COVID-19 management led to significantly increased confidence, decreased stress, and improved knowledge among resident trainees and APPs This curriculum could serve as an effective didactic resource for neurology providers preparing for the COVID-19 ICU