Effectiveness of concussion curriculum (CC) in postgraduate medical education

Research Objectives:

Objectives: The aims of this review are to describe and assess the effects of concussion curriculum on medical learning.

Design: A systematic search of six databases (MEDLINE/ PUBMED, Ovid MEDLINE: Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE Daily and Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, ERIC, Cochrane, CINAHL) was conducted, using the text-word and MeSH-heading search strategy, in December 2021. Eligibility criteria included studies in a postgraduate education context that reported on the effects on learning. The validated MINORS (Methodological Index for Nonrandomized Studies) tool was utilized to assess the risk of bias. Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model and Miller's assessment pyramid were used as frameworks to determine the impacts of CC on post-graduate learning.

Setting: literature review

Participants: n/a

Interventions: Implementing a spiral curriculum following the systematic review of concussion curricula

Main Outcome Measures: competency

Results: Six articles were identified, reporting on 2 retrospective studies and 4 cohort studies. Although there were mixed findings overall, the highest positive learning outcome reported was knowledge (Miller Level 1), and no studies assessed higher levels of curriculum impacts.

Conclusions: The effectiveness of CC in post-graduate medical education remains unknown regarding how the learning can be transferred to change practice and affect patient outcomes. Educational research should be built on conceptual frameworks and theories. Those with success employed constructivism, situated learning theory, and social learning theory/community of practice as the underpinning theories. To develop an effective CC, further prospective, competency-based concussion educational scholarship with mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative) evaluation is needed to capture curriculum processes and impacts over time. Using iterative usability approaches and medical educational frameworks, future CC research studies will be valuable to support competency-based medical education development.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors of this study have no conflicts of interest to disclose and received no financial benefits. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.