title: Assessment of learning by emergency medicine residents and pharmacy students participating in a poison center clerkship.
abstract: An AAPCC-designated poison center developed and validated an objective testing instrument to evaluate learning during a poison center clinical rotation for 2nd-year emergency medicine residents and 5th-year pharmacy students. The examination contained multiple-choice, true-false, and fill-in questions pertaining to basic clinical toxicology. A pretest was administered prior to the rotation and a post-test was administered upon completion of the rotation. Overall pre-test mean was 56.2%; physician pre-test mean was 73.8%, and student pre-test mean was 43.9%. Overall post-test mean was 78.7%; physician post-test mean was 85.7%, and student post-test mean was 81%. Pre-test scores ranged from 21 to 86% for the group, and post-test scores ranged from 68 to 96%. The mean difference in pre-test to post-test score was 26.9%. These data suggest that a poison center rotation can result in significant increases in post-test scores in comparison to pre-test scores.
authors.affiliation: Finger Lakes Regional Poison Center, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, NY 14642, USA.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Cobaugh
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Goetz
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Krenzelok
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D004512:Education, Pharmacy; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D011039:Poison Control Centers