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Evaluation of an emergency medicine-focused clinical pathology training course for non-clinical pathology house officers.

OBJECTIVE
Determine whether an emergency medicine-focused clinical pathology training course improved the proficiency of house officers.


DESIGN
Prospective blinded study.


SETTING
Veterinary academic center.


STUDY SUBJECT
House officers enrolled in programs other than clinical pathology.


INTERVENTIONS
A 4-hour curriculum was provided by a board-certified specialist in veterinary clinical pathology.


MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
A focused clinical pathology lecture course derived from historical teaching materials was delivered. A pre- and post-course multiple choice question examination was taken by the enrolled house officers, as well as a survey regarding their confidence level pre- and post-course utilizing a novel 5-point scoring system, ranging from 1 (very low confidence) to 5 (very high). A total of 21 house officers completed the study, 5 of which attended didactic lectures, 13 utilized an online learning platform, and 3 used a combination of both. There was a significant improvement in all house officers' post-training course examination results compared to pre-course results (pre-course examination score: mean 49% ±12; post-course examination score: mean 72.5% ± 15.7; P < 0.0001). There was a significant difference in pre- and post-course examination scores for each of the 3 topic areas: hematology (pre-course: mean 47% ±16; post-course: mean 71% ± 15.8; P ≤ 0.0001); urinalysis (pre-course: mean 65.7% ± 12.5; post-course: mean 87.6% ± 22.1; P = 0.0004); and fluid analysis (pre-course: mean 37.1% ± 14.1; post-course: mean 60.5% ± 15; P ≤ 0.0001). There was also a significant increase in the house officers' confidence score in overall clinical pathology skills (pre-course: mean 2.2 ± 1.5; post-course: 3.6±1.4; P = 0.0005).


CONCLUSION
This study identified that a 4-hour clinical pathology training course relevant to small animal emergency medicine improved the knowledge and confidence of nonclinical pathology house officers. A similar training course may prove helpful in the future to improve the proficiency of emergency veterinarians.