Evaluation of a national Bright Futures oral health curriculum for pediatric residents

Abstract

Objective: Training in Bright Futures and oral health concepts is critical for delivery of high-quality primary care and preventive health services by residents, our future pediatric workforce. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an online health promotion curriculum on pediatric residents' confidence, knowledge, and clinical performance in Bright Futures and oral health practice.

Methods: Residents from sites that had been stratified by size and randomized were assigned to the Bright Futures Oral Health curriculum (intervention group) or an active control group. Confidence and knowledge were measured by self-report and multiple-choice questions, respectively. Clinical performance was measured with structured clinical observations, performed by trained faculty, of Bright Futures and oral health performance before and after intervention. Mean scores between intervention and control groups were compared using a 2-tailed, repeated-measures F test.

Results: A total of 143 pediatric residents from 27 Continuity Research Network (CORNET) sites participated in the study. At a median of 3 months after intervention, the intervention group demonstrated significant improvement in general Bright Futures confidence (n = 128, F = 6.564, P = .012) and knowledge (n = 102, F = 5.296, P = .023), oral health confidence (n = 123, F = 15.220, P < .001), and clinical performance skills in oral health (n = 96, F = 11.315, P = .001) compared with the control group.

Conclusions: The Bright Futures Oral Health curriculum promoted an increase in confidence and knowledge in Bright Futures concepts and in confidence and clinical performance in oral health concepts among pediatric residents. This online curriculum demonstrated a positive impact on documented resident behavior, maintained for 3 months after intervention, and provides a replicable national training model to advance important elements of primary care pediatrics.