Teaching Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo to Emergency Medicine Residents by Using Gagne’s Nine Steps of Instructional Design

INTRODUCTION: Patients commonly seek medical advice with dizziness symptoms. One of the common subtypes of dizziness is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). The American Academy of Neurology recommends that physicians should be trained in the physical maneuvers for the treatment of BPPV. METHODOLOGY: The study participants were educated about BPPV using Gagne’s instructional strategy. Before and after the education, three parameters were used for assessing their knowledge and skills about BPPV. Twenty MCQs for knowledge assessment and two skill stations, Dix–Hallpike test (DH) and canalith repositioning maneuver (CR) were used. An experienced emergency medicine (EM) faculty supervised the assessment. RESULTS: Nineteen EM residents participated in the study; mean age was 28.4 years (±1.7). Twelve (63.15%) were male, and seven (36.9%) were female. The median score before the course for the DH test was 2 (1.7–3.0) and improved to 5(4.0–5.0). Similarly, CR’s median score improved from 2 (1.0–2.3) to 5 (4.7–5.0). Both of these skills improved by 60%. Pre-intervention MCQs mean score was 15.2 (14.4–16.1), which increased to 18.0 (17.4–18.6). MCQs improvement was recorded as 14%. CONCLUSION: The educational plan delivered by utilizing the Gagne’s instructional design has resulted in significant improvement of the knowledge about BPPV.