Published online March 9, 2009
PEDIATRICS Vol. 123 No. 4 April 2009, pp. e595-e602 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-2938)
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow View responses
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Starling, S. P.
Right arrow Articles by Youmans, E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Starling, S. P.
Right arrow Articles by Youmans, E.
Related Collections
Right arrow Office Practice
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

ARTICLE

Child Abuse Training and Knowledge: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, and Pediatric Residents and Program Directors

Suzanne P. Starling, MDa,b, Kurt W. Heisler, MS, MPHa,b, James F. Paulson, PhDa and Eren Youmans, MPHa

a Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia
b Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, Norfolk, Virginia

OBJECTIVE. The objective of this study was to determine the level of knowledge, comfort, and training related to the medical management of child abuse among pediatrics, emergency medicine, and family medicine residents.

METHODS. Surveys were administered to program directors and third-year residents at 67 residency programs. The resident survey included a 24-item quiz to assess knowledge regarding the medical management of physical and sexual child abuse. Sites were solicited from members of a network of child abuse physicians practicing at institutions with residency programs.

RESULTS. Analyzable surveys were received from 53 program directors and 462 residents. Compared with emergency medicine and family medicine programs, pediatric programs were significantly larger and more likely to have a medical provider specializing in child abuse pediatrics, have faculty primarily responsible for child abuse training, use a written curriculum for child abuse training, and offer an elective rotation in child abuse. Exposure to child abuse training and abused patients was highest for pediatric residents and lowest for family medicine residents. Comfort with managing child abuse cases was lowest among family medicine residents. On the knowledge quiz, pediatric residents significantly outperformed emergency medicine and family medicine residents. Residents with high knowledge scores were significantly more likely to come from larger programs and programs that had a center, provider, or interdisciplinary team that specialized in child abuse pediatrics; had a physician on faculty responsible for child abuse training; used a written curriculum for child abuse training; and had a required rotation in child abuse pediatrics.

CONCLUSIONS. By analyzing the relationship between program characteristics and residents' child abuse knowledge, we found that pediatric programs provide far more training and resources for child abuse education than emergency medicine and family medicine programs. As leaders, pediatricians must establish the importance of this topic in the pediatric education of residents of all specialties.

Key Words: child abuse • resident education/training • emergency physicians • family physicians

Abbreviations: EM—emergency medicine • FM—family medicine • CAP—child abuse pediatrics • HLM—hierarchical linear modeling • ACGME—Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

Accepted Dec 19, 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Knowledge and Attitudes to Child Protection Issues in Northern Ireland.
Jarlath M. O'Donohoe
Pediatrics Online, 19 May 2009 [Full text]
An Old Song Resung:The Future of Child Abuse Education
Marcella M. Donaruma-Kwoh, et al.
Pediatrics Online, 24 May 2009 [Full text]