The Web-Based Education of Beginning Interns on Handoffs

NCT00973635 | Withdrawn

• 1 other identifier: STU00009658
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: N/A
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

A handoff is defined as the transfer of role and responsibility from one person to another in a physical or mental process. Current evidence shows that handoffs between medical providers are both common, and fraught with potential for harm. In spite of these problems, handoff skills are rarely discussed or practiced. Currently, there are few curricula available in the literature regarding the teaching of handoff skills. The purpose of the investigators' study is to develop a curriculum focusing on key handoff safety issues. The investigators plan to create an independent learning tutorial that would be easily administered to all beginning interns (medical subinterns and 2nd month pgy1 medical interns), that would be accessible across multiple sites, that would increase learner knowledge regarding key handoff safety issues, and would improve trainee satisfaction with the handoff process. The investigators' goal is to make this curriculum practical and time efficient. The investigators' hope is that the educational intervention would also have a measurable impact on the quality of patient care.

Conditions

Medical Interns and Medical Students

Keywords

education; web-based intervention; patient care

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Measurement of the quality of three discharge summaries, selected at random, using standardized content scoring card

  up to 1 year after study

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• re-admission rates and determination of preventability for each re-admission case

  1 year

Study Arms (2)

Traditional training

NO INTERVENTION

Patients of subjects with no detailed curriculum for handoff skills during non-intervention months. Learners provided a brief outline of how to perform discharge summaries (handout). Learners given two core articles describing some of the communication issues regarding handoff safety. Handoff teaching left to discretion of the subintern's team (typically the "see one, do one, teach one" method). No feedback given to these subinterns on their performance of their handoff skills.

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Group that receives educational intervention.

Other: Web-based education

Interventions

Web-based education OTHER

Patients of subjects who were required to complete 10 web-based, independent learning modules. Each subject given a course packet which includes 13 required "core articles" pertaining to handoff skills. Each subject receives immediate feedback to each web-case with correct answers and suggested readings. Each subject given individualized feedback on their scores for summaries, instructions, and sign outs.

Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• All discharged patients of Sub-interns and Interns

You may not qualify if:

• none

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Northwestern University: lead

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor of Medicine

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 21, 2009
• First Posted: September 9, 2009
• Study Start: July 1, 2009
• Primary Completion: July 1, 2010
• Study Completion: July 1, 2010
• Last Updated: April 15, 2013

Record last verified: 2013-04