The Nephrology Immersion Classroom for Internal Medicine Residents

Background In graduate medical education (GME), there are many barriers to achieving a personalized learning process with standardized learning outcomes. One way to support this is through mobile-friendly digital blackboard videos. We sought to measure the effect of a mobile-friendly video curriculum on resident satisfaction, knowledge, and clinical skills during a nephrology rotation. Methods This was a prospective, controlled, nonrandomized trial. The control group consisted of internal medicine residents who completed our inpatient nephrology consult rotation as usual. The classroom group had the same clinical experience, but also had access to a library (Nephrology Immersion Classroom) of mobile-friendly, nephrology-themed, digital blackboard videos. In a postrotation assessment, we measured resident satisfaction, clinical knowledge using 15 multiple-choice questions, and nephrology-specific clinical skills. Results Of the residents in the classroom group, 77% enrolled in the online classroom, and the majority reported using the classroom occasionally or frequently. A majority found it very easy to use (86%) and strongly recommended having similar videos for other rotations (77%). We observed improved report of rotation-specific clinical skills, but no difference in short-term knowledge between the two study groups. Conclusions A mobile-friendly, digital video curriculum for internal medicine residents on an inpatient consult rotation was well utilized, highly rated, and associated with improved nephrology-specific clinical skills. Continued evaluation and incremental improvement of such resources could enhance implementation of GME core curricula.