| Summary: | Abstract The adult literature has demonstrated that patient preferences and understanding of discharge instructions can impact success of discharge and even predict return ER visits. There is very little pediatric literature describing what information should be discussed with families when providing discharge instructions, and most pediatric residents do not receive formal education on the topic. This curriculum is designed as a brief educational intervention that can improve residents' comfort and skills in providing discharge education to families. The materials include both instruction on how to present the curriculum and tools to assess resident knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes regarding discharge education, as well as an objective checklist to evaluate their skills. The curriculum is designed to be presented in small-group, open-discussion format while residents are rotating on the inpatient pediatric ward. It has been taught to pediatric interns, family medicine residents, and psychiatry residents rotating on the inpatient pediatric wards at two large, freestanding children's hospitals and has demonstrated reproducible, statistically significant improvement in resident comfort and performance in providing discharge education. When evaluating the curriculum, resident free-text comments included “It made me think of considerations I hadn't previously thought of” and “This has made me make an effort to be present, rather than just give written instructions for the nurse to go over.” The curriculum is significant because it is a brief educational intervention that can have an impact on trainee comfort and skills as well as patient care. There were slight variations in the way the curriculum was executed at each institution, yet both had favorable results, demonstrating the flexibility of the curriculum and the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration in the shared goal of improving the patient experience and safety at the time of discharge. There are numerous potential ways to expand upon the curriculum. One could include peer observation, where trainees would have the opportunity to collaborate and learn from one another. The curriculum could be taught to multiple trainees at one time, and observations could occur over a longer time period, to assess the long-term impact the curriculum has on practice change. Finally would be the opportunity to objectively study the impact the curriculum has on patient outcomes, including patient satisfaction and understanding of discharge instructions, percentage of prescriptions filled, compliance with follow-up doctor visits, and hospital readmission rates.
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