Emergency medicine residency fact board: Why our attempt to encourage on-shift learning failed

Abstract

Residents commonly feel that a lack of time is a significant barrier in keeping up-to-date with both medical knowledge and literature. In this study, we addressed that barrier by placing an iPad-based live fact feed in the resident workroom of our emergency department, therefore allowing for passive learning while on shift. We hypothesized that residents with access to the live feed would score higher on monthly post-curriculum block exams. We ended up finding that the residents actually prefer a more active approach to learning and that many more people in the emergency department other than the residents benefitted from the fact board.