Design and Implementation of a Didactic Curriculum in a Large Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program: A Single-center Experience.

OBJECTIVE:  Although the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) provide regulations and guidance on fellowship didactic education, each program establishes their own didactic schedules to address these learning needs. Wide variation exists in content, educators, amount of protected educational time, and the format for didactic lectures. This inconsistency can contribute to fellow dissatisfaction, a perceived poor learning experience, and poor attendance. Our objective was to create a Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine (NPM) fellow curriculum based on adult learning theory utilizing fellow input to improve the perceived fellow experience.

STUDY DESIGN:  A needs assessment of current NPM fellows at Cincinnati Children's Hospital was conducted to guide the development of a new curriculum. Fellow perception of educational experience and board preparedness before and after introduction of the new curriculum was collected. Study period was from October 2018 to July 2021.

RESULTS:  One hundred percent of the fellows responded to the needs assessment survey. A response rate of 100 and 87.5% were noted on mid-curriculum survey and postcurriculum survey, respectively. Key themes identified and incorporated into the curriculum included schedule structure, content, and delivery mode. A new didactic curriculum implementing a consistent schedule of shorter lectures grouped by organ system targeting ABP core content was created. After curriculum implementation, fellows had higher self-perception of board preparedness, and overall improved satisfaction.

CONCLUSION:  Our positive experience in implementing this curriculum provides a framework for individual programs to implement similar curricula, and could be utilized to aid in development of national NPM curricula.

KEY POINTS: · Fellowship didactic education varies significantly resulting in learner dissatisfaction and poor attendance.. · Widespread need to restructure didactic curricula exists.. · Our study provides a framework for future curricula..