Teaching residents to use asthma devices. Assessing family residents' skills and a brief intervention.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate an educational program for family medicine residents on using selected inhaler devices for delivery of asthma medications.

DESIGN

A prospective analysis using pretests and posttests of a nonrandomized study group and control group. The study group of residents was given an instructional manual and a set of devices for home study, followed by a 1-hour tutorial session with a clinical instructor that included a video and hands-on practice.

SETTING

Family medicine centres in Edmonton hospitals.

PARTICIPANTS

The study group consisted of a convenience sample of 23 first- and second-year family medicine residents at the Misericordia Hospital Family Medicine Centre. The control group consisted of a convenience sample of 22 first- and second-year family medicine residents at the Royal Alexandra Hospital Family Medicine Centre. Nine residents did not take the posttest; one was absent because of injury, one missed the in-service, and seven had left the city on other rotations, had completed their program, or declined to participate.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Improvements in scores on a multiple-choice test and in techniques of using the devices.

RESULTS

Using an average of scores on seven different devices, only 36% of residents showed adequate knowledge of how to use the devices on the pretest. Posttest scores improved for both the control (P < 0.001) and study (P < 0.001) groups, but improvement was significantly greater for the study group (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Residents lacked adequate knowledge of asthma devices. More study is needed to confirm the long-term effectiveness of formal teaching about the devices.