Measuring the impact of an HIV rotation on trainees’ knowledge and confidence level: The importance of inviting recent graduates

Abstract

Background: The new Canadian Residency Accreditation Consortium (CanRAC) standards recommend surveying recently graduated trainees to target improvements in training programs. The goal of this study was to estimate the impact of a rotation in an HIV clinic on trainees’ related knowledge, confidence, and practice profile at the Université de Montréal. Methods: An electronic survey was sent to practising physicians who completed the rotation between 2006 and 2016. Participants were asked to rate their agreement and level of confidence toward HIV- and HCV-related topics using 5-point Likert scales (0 to 4). Descriptive statistics and mean comparisons were calculated. Results: Among invited participants, 27 of 45 (60%) completed the questionnaire. The majority of respondents were infectious diseases physicians (48%) or family physicians (37%) and had an outpatient caseload of <10 HIV patients/year (80%). For 37% of the respondents, the rotation had a large or very large impact on their career path. They considered that the rotation had increased their knowledge on the overall management of HIV (mean 3.2/4 [95% CI 2.9 to 3.4]), but less on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) (mean 1.5/4 [95% CI 1.1 to 2.0]) or HCV care (mean 1.9/4 [95% CI 1.4 to 2.3]). Participants felt less confident with genotyping interpretation (mean 2.6/4 [95% CI 2.2 to 2.9]) and PrEP (mean 2.4/4 [95% CI 2.0 to 2.8]). Conclusions: These results suggest that a rotation in an HIV clinic improves knowledge related to HIV care. Feedback from past graduates helped us identify gaps in knowledge or level of confidence in PrEP and HCV care, which will feed curriculum improvement.