At USC, medical students are taught blood pressure measurement every 4 years

Given that more than a third of American adults have hypertension– and less than half of them checked it against their blood pressure goal – it is curious that blood pressure measurement is often only given the most brief instructions in medical school, and often before the probationary years. As a result, many medical students enter residency with little or no practical experience in measuring blood pressure, let alone obtaining accurate readings.

The second episode of a two-part webinar, “Advancing Student BP Measurement Training,” explores a project at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) that implemented training and assessment of measurement of BP over the four years. Its centerpiece is the “The Basics of Student Blood Pressure Measurement” e-learning series.

This project and the five others featured in the webinar were funded by grants from AMA Improving Health Outcomes.

“We tried to simulate the use of all modules longitudinally over time, so we implemented concurrently across our ‘continuum of undergraduate medical education,'” said Ron Ben-Ari, MD, AMA Fellow, Associate Dean for Curriculum, and Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education at USC’s Keck School of Medicine Dr. Ben-Ari was the project’s principal investigator, leading a team that includes Win May, MD, PhD, Cha Chi Fung, PhD, Greg Harlan, MD, Alan Liu, MD, second-year medical student Rachel Colbath, and Lillie Hudson, MSPA, MPH.

First and second year students followed the first module, “The Basics of Blood Pressure Measurement: Student Edition“, which covers everything from the importance of accurate blood pressure measurement and the current standard to preparing and positioning a patient for blood pressure measurements and how to perform measurements. of blood pressure on manual, semi-automated and automated blood pressure devices It also provides an overview of self-measured blood pressure (SMBP).

Third-year students took the second module in the series, “Self-Measured Blood Pressure Essentials: Student Edition“, which explains how to partner with patients to improve home blood pressure measurement.

Third- and fourth-year students then reviewed a shorter, summarized version of the first module’s learning objectives through a third module, “Refresher on BP measurement: student edition.”

“We have, of course, always taught vital signs and emphasized learning how to measure blood pressure,” Dr. Ben-Ari said. “But we had never had core curriculum content around self-measured blood pressure, so that was new to our program.”

Dr. Ben-Ari and colleagues had third-year students complete the SMBP module before the intersession and developed a standardized patient encounter (SP) for the intersession using a 15-step model derived from the module. SMBP to evaluate and give feedback to students. on advising a patient on how to perform self-blood pressure measurement. They also attached a post-encounter exercise using the same 15-step model to a mandatory clinical performance review conducted at the end of the third year. The model covers four areas: preparation, performance, recording and monitoring.

The results of the intersessional evaluation showed a significant transfer of knowledge. Among the 186 students who completed the SP encounter, the average score was 81% with a standard deviation of 12. The same students took a mandatory clinical performance exam three to four months after the intersession and their average score was 78% with a standard deviation of 14.

“There was quite a high use of information through the module,” Dr. Ben-Ari said, noting, however, that he and his colleagues saw a degradation in performance between the intersessional OSCE and the exam. of clinical performance. “We just think it supports that building knowledge and skills is necessary.

There “The Basics of Student Blood Pressure Measurement” the e-learning series is part of the AMA Ed Hub^™, an online platform with high-quality CME and training that meets the professional development needs of physicians and other healthcare professionals. Along with topics relevant to you, it also provides an easy and streamlined way to find, track, follow, and report educational activities.

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