Abstract: PO1390
The Skeleton Key Group: Teaching Electrolyte Disorders Using Social Media Tools and Spaced Learning
Session Information
- Educational Research
October 22, 2020 | Location: On-Demand
Abstract Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Category: Educational Research
- 800 Educational Research
Authors
- Norouzi, Sayna, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States
- Topf, Joel M., Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester, Michigan, United States
- Yau, Amy, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, New York, United States
Background
Social media is being adopted by healthcare professionals as a platform for education. It’s ability to close geographic gaps and flex to busy schedules is increasing the demand for online educational platforms. The Skeleton Key Group (SKG) is a free open access medical education (FOAMed) platform focusing on electrolyte physiology and management. Group members collaborate to publish a monthly case report with learning objectives on the Renal Fellow Network (RFN) website. Content is supplemented by a visual abstract, tweetorials and follow up quizzes to ensure effective long-term learning and reach multiple learning styles.
Methods
An anonymous survey was conducted and disseminated on Twitter to gather information from users to evaluate if SKG teaching methods added to their education. Questions were designed as multiple-choice answers or qualitative responses on a 0-100 scale.
Results
There were a total of 130 responses from 32 different countries. The majority were nephrology fellows (33%), followed by internal medicine residents/interns (29%), attending physicians (23%), other specialty trainees (10%) and medical students (5%). On a scale of 1-100 (100 is considered highest quality), the mean score was 91±15.5 for the quality of our case reports. Overall, 95% of surveyors found our educational materials useful with tweetorials ranked highest (Fig 1). As training level progresses, a larger percentage of readers found the tweetorial more useful compared to the case report.
Around 80% confirmed their educational experience was affected during the pandemic, and 90.4% found the SKG an effective educational experience during this time period.
Conclusion
Innovative teaching methods provided by the SKG was found to be beneficial in teaching complicated electrolyte concepts. Our data reinforces the ability of FOAMed to cater to different learning styles and to complement traditional medical education specifically during periods of social distancing such as COVID19 pandemic.