Javier Gonzalez-Del-Rey, MD, MEd
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of a standarized video in informing patients and families about the roles and responsibilities of the different physician care providers they enounter during an emergency department (ED) visit at a training facility.
Methods: This was a prospective, randomized, controlled trial of the impact of an educational video on the knowledge of families of trainee and supervisory physician roles in a children's hospital emergency department. Families assigned to the intervention group were shown an ED roles educational video while families in the control group were shown a bicycle safety video of similar length. Both groups completed a previously standardized questionnaire assessing knowledge of trainee physician's roles and responsibilities with the aid of a research assistant (RA). Providers and RA were blinded to which video families viewed. Time in the ED was not altered ad medical care was not effected by group assignment. The primary outcome was the difference in correctly answered questions on the roles knowledge assessmetn between control and intervention groups. Secondary outcomes included differences in ability to appropriately recall their child's physician, level of satisfaction with the ED visit, perceived involvement in care, and comfort with being treated by a physician in training.
Results: Of the 209 individuals approached for the study 160 (77%) agreed to participate. 147 completed the survey with 78 in the experimental group and 69 in the control group. 13 Patients left prior to completing the study. There was no significant different between the study and control group on the questionnaire designed to assess understanding of the training levels and job roles of physicians in the ED. The role video group averaged 67.1% correct responses while the mean for the control group was 67.4%.
Conclusions: The overall results indicated that the video, as designed and implemented, did not effectively improve understanding. A number of factors related to design and implementation, however, might have hindered the effectiveness of our strategy, and further work is necessary to see whether such standardized education strategies can be more effective.
