Objective:

Improving electroencephalogram (EEG) interpretation skills among neurology residents through a new peer-delivered EEG teaching method

Background:

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) sets the ability to interpret EEG studies and identify common EEG findings as one of the graduation milestones for neurology residents. However, in a previously published survey in 2017, two-thirds of the graduated neurology residents did not feel confident to interpret EEG independently.  Common reasons included the lack of EEG interpretation teaching sessions and the absence of an EEG teaching curriculum

Design/Methods:

Two board-certified epileptologists approved a list of EEG findings that the residents should be able to identify that included normal and abnormal EEG findings as well as artifacts. A simplified EEG interpretation guidebook was created to serve as an EEG teaching curriculum containing screenshots of all the EEG findings in the list. This curriculum was delivered in a 6-hour crash course of lectures during the introductory lectures to the adult neurology interns who completed a 13-question EEG quiz at the end of the course. Their results were compared to the results of the rest of the residents in the program (current PGY 2, 3,4) who did not receive the bootcamp lecture

Results:

A total of 6 interns received an intensive 6-hour EEG lecture series with a clear curriculum during their scheduled introductory lectures week to PGY2, and 13 residents (PGY 2,3,4) received interrupted EEG teaching during weekly didactics in addition to a month of Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) rotation. In a 13-question EEG quiz, the mean number of correct answers from the interns was 8.3 representing a statistically significant improvement from the rest of the residents who had a mean number of correct answers of 5 (P-value= 0.0013).

Conclusions:

Delivering EEG education through an intensive lecture series with a clear curriculum can improve residents’ EEG interpretation skills