title: Use of the pause procedure in continuing medical education: A randomized controlled intervention study.
abstract: During lectures, a pause procedure (the presenter pauses so students can discuss content) can improve educational outcomes. We aimed to determine whether (1) continuing medical education (CME) presentations with a pause procedure were evaluated more favorably and (2) a pause procedure improved recall. In this randomized controlled intervention study of all participants (N = 214) at the Mayo Clinic Internal Medicine Board Review course, 48 lectures were randomly assigned to an intervention (pause procedure) or control (traditional lecture) group. The pause procedure was a 1-min pause at the middle and end of the presentation. Study outcomes were (1) presentation evaluation instrument scores and (2) number of recalled items per lecture. A total of 214 participants returned 145 surveys (response rate, 68%). Mean presentation evaluation scores were significantly higher for pause procedure than for traditional presentations (70.9% vs 65.8%; 95%CI for the difference, 3.5-6.7; p < .0001). Mean number of rapid recall items was higher for pause procedure presentations (0.68 vs 0.59; 95%CI for the difference, 0.02-0.14; p = .01). In a traditional CME course, presentations with a pause procedure had higher evaluation scores and more content was recalled. The pause procedure could arm CME presenters with an easy technique to improve educational content delivery.
authors.affiliation: a Division of General Internal Medicine , Mayo Clinic , Rochester , MN , USA.
authors.forename: Lukas W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.affiliation: b Division of General Internal Medicine , Harbor University of California Los Angeles Medical Center , Torrance , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Amy T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: a Division of General Internal Medicine , Mayo Clinic , Rochester , MN , USA.
authors.forename: Saswati
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahapatra
authors.affiliation: c Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics , Mayo Clinic , Rochester , MN , USA.
authors.forename: Sarah M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.affiliation: a Division of General Internal Medicine , Mayo Clinic , Rochester , MN , USA.
authors.forename: Nerissa M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.affiliation: a Division of General Internal Medicine , Mayo Clinic , Rochester , MN , USA.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Beckman
authors.affiliation: a Division of General Internal Medicine , Mayo Clinic , Rochester , MN , USA.
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Wittich
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D012737:Sex Factors