120 - Implementing Traumatic Brain Injury Mini Didactics on a Busy Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit: Preliminary Results

Objectives: We implemented mini didactics on traumatic brain injury (TBI) topics to evaluate whether TBI mini didactics with cognitive learning strategies improve short-term retention and knowledge.

Design: Mini didactics were created for residents and rotating medical students on TBI and Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) rotations. The topics were: Intro to TBI, sleep, agitation/behavior, arousal/attention, disorders of consciousness, and medical complications. The TBI fellow lectured once or twice weekly, lasting approximately 30-45 minutes. Before each didactic, there is a quiz of five to seven questions. To implement cognitive learning strategies, e.g., spaced learning and interleaving, each quiz consisted of questions on the content covered and previously covered. Any questions answered incorrectly by the majority were repeated. All questions were reviewed, and a rationale was provided at the end of each didactic.

Results: From January to August, 30 trainees participated. The cohort were medical students (17%), PGY-1 (17%), PGY-2 (37%), PGY-3 (17%), and PGY-4 (12%). The mean number of repeated questions and days elapsed are two per month and eight, respectively. There was a 30% mean increase (IQR 0, 50) in participants who answered questions correctly on second exposure. Four participants returned two to four months later, and their mean score (%) difference was zero (IQR –19, 28). All but one answered up to 66% of previously exposed repeated questions correctly.

Conclusions: This is the first report of a mini didactic series utilizing cognitive learning strategies in a physical medicine and rehabilitation residency. More participants answered questions correctly on the second exposure, indicating short-term retention. Cognitive learning strategies are effective learning tools, but our results may be due to the didactics themselves or both. A future aim is to assess their impact on the 2024 PM&R Self-Assessment Exam (SAE) Brain Disorders section scores and resident satisfaction with teaching on the brain injury rotations.