Educational concepts: A longitudinal interleaved curriculum for emergency medicine residency training

Abstract

Traditionally, emergency medicine (EM) residency programs teach non‐adult emergency department activities (such as pediatric EM, point‐of‐care ultrasound [PoCUS], emergency medical services, and others) in a block format. In this way, a resident may have a 1‐month pediatric EM rotation and then not have any further pediatric EM exposure until their next pediatric rotation 6‒9 months later. Furthermore, some rotations are only allotted for 1‐month during the entire residency. A first‐year EM resident may have their only formal PoCUS rotation early in the first year of training when their overall skills are developing, and their level of understanding and retention of information may not be optimal at that juncture of their residency training. This is far from ideal from an educational perspective. Learning scientists have now suggested that a longitudinal interleaved curriculum has substantial advantages over the traditional block format. This curriculum allows for a “spaced retrieval” practice that enhances retention of material and develops thinking processes that are important in clinical practice. The increased continuity of clinical experience has been shown to improve educational outcome and learner satisfaction. We developed a novel longitudinal interleaved curriculum for our EM resident trainees. This curriculum encompasses the entire 3 years of residency training and has the goals of increasing EM knowledge and clinical skills and being excellent preparation for board certification examinations. This concept has clear educational benefits. While adapting an existing medical training program would be challenging, a longitudinal curriculum could be phased in to replace a traditional EM curriculum.