Student assessment of teaching effectiveness of “bundle of changes”-A paired, controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Inching toward optimum patient safety by training personnel is the prime aim of the ongoing medical education. AIMS: To assess whether lectures targeted to improve quality care in ICU could improve ICU practitioners’ knowledge levels and to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: In this paired controlled trial, 50 ICU practitioners, i.e., anesthesia and medicine residents and nursing staff of our hospital attended a series of four lectures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants enrolled in the study attended lectures on bundles of changes in ICU, namely, introduction, ventilator bundle, central line bundle, and catheter-related blood stream infections and severe sepsis bundle. They were given a questionnaire of 15 multiple choice questions prior to and after the lectures. We evaluated their immediate knowledge acquisition and retention recall. Subsequently, they evaluated the effectiveness of the teaching programme by a questionnaire of 10 multiple choice questions. Statistical analysis used: Data for statistical analysis were tabulated and analyzed using SPSS-Pc 11.5 version software. RESULTS: Fifty study participants completed all three questionnaires. There was an increase in the overall mean score in the post-lecture test (4.58 + 1.51 SD) (P < 0.001). Overall mean score increased significantly from 8.30 + 1.34 SD in THE pre-lecture test - to 12.02 + 1.61 SD in the postlecture re-test (3.72 + 1.39 SD) (P < 0.001). In the evaluation of teaching effectiveness 88% respondents agreed to most of the questions, signifying the effectiveness of the lectures. However, there were 10% who disagreed to the questions and only 2% strongly disagreed to all the questions. CONCLUSIONS: Teaching programmes such as the “bundle of changes” are effective in improving immediate knowledge acquisition and retention recall of the participants if designed keeping the target audience in mind.