Pediatric resident and faculty knowledge of the Denver II

Objective: To assess knowledge of the Denver II, the revised developmental screening tool recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, in residents and faculty, and to evaluate a teaching intervention for incoming postgraduate year 1 (PGY-1) trainees. Design: A cross-sectional rest of knowledge for all subjects and pretesting and posttesting of the incoming PGY-1 trainees. Setting: University of Texas-Houston Medical School Department of Pediatrics. Participants. Faculty (n = 9) and residents (n = 78), including an intervention group (n = 45), of incoming PGY-1 trainees over 2 years. Interventions: Postgraduate year 1 trainees in both 1994 through 1995 and 1995 through 1996 viewed the Denver IT training videotape on entry into a continuity clinic. Trainees were encouraged to perform Denver II evaluations on at least 1 appropriate patient at each pediatric clinic session and had access to Denver II support materials. Main Outcome Measures: Scores on the Denver II Proficiency Written Test, self-reported measures of comfort, and number of Denver II evaluations performed. Results: The mean (SD) test scores for incoming, preintervention PGY-1. trainees (n = 45) (41.3 [9.6]) did not differ from scores for outgoing PGY-1 trainees (n = 13) (38.5 [10.4]) who had not received the intervention. Postintervention PGY-1 test results were significantly improved (59.4 [10.6]) (P<.001). Test scores for upper-level residents who had participated in the developmental pediatrics rotation (n = 14) were better (55.3 [9.3]), but all scored below passing. Residents who had not yet participated in the developmental pediatrics rotation (n = 19) and members of the general pediatric faculty (n = 9) had scores similar to those of PGY-1 trainees (40.9 [13.4] and 39.0 [15.1], respectively). Conclusions: Residents had a greater knowledge of the Denver II after completing a developmental pediatrics rotation. Our intervention produced significant improvement in PGY-1 trainees' knowledge, raising it to levels similar to those of upper-level residents exposed to developmental pediatrics. Faculty were not expert in using the Denver II.