Professional Skill Builder: Mastering Cardiac Auscultation in Under 4 Hours

INTRODUCTION: Cardiac auscultation is an important clinical skill used by health care professionals during bedside patient evaluation and management. To support development of this skill in health sciences students, we created a self-paced, interactive program. This program helps develop foundational skills and knowledge so learners can confidently perform basic cardiac auscultation at the bedside. METHODS: For novice learners, this program should be used in conjunction with their initial clinical experiences so they can immediately apply what they have learned in the short course. Advanced learners and health care professionals can use this program to review and improve their cardiac auscultation skills. To achieve these objectives, this multimedia program teaches the eight basic heart cadences and their clinical significance through the use of guided tutorials, a gamified e-learning activity, interactive clinical cases, and a self-assessment. A heart sound and murmur library is also included for comparative listening at the bedside. RESULTS: Course evaluations from the first- and second-year Clinical Foundations of Medicine courses at the University of Michigan Medical School demonstrate the value of the various sections of the program. Additionally, the clinical cases have been shown to be effective in improving cardiac auscultation knowledge and skills among residents. DISCUSSION: All clinical cases in the program are based on authentic clinical problems and were developed by academic cardiologists and internists with expertise in this area. Various sections of this tutorial have been in use at our institution for over 20 years and have been evaluated favorably by our students.