Resident Physician UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland Oakland, California, United States
Background: There is a growing disparity between the number of children in need of developmental assessments and services and the availability of specialized providers. This results in long waitlists and delays in early intervention. The modern pediatrician plays an important role in supporting patients with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families and therefore must feel comfortable sharing knowledge and providing evidenced-based care and linkage to community resources. Though the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Training (ACGME) requires at least four weeks of developmental-behavioral pediatrics (DBP) instruction for all pediatric residents, there is no uniform curriculum and inconsistent access to board-certified DBP providers, as highlighted by its new proposed guidelines. The DBP curriculum at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland (UBCHO) emphasizes neurodiversity-affirming primary care, knowledge of community resources, interaction with therapy and applied behavioral analysis (ABA) providers, attendance to individualized educational program meetings, and seminar-style didactics and case conference. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the impact of a community-based DBP curriculum on pediatric residents’ self-assessment of knowledge and comfort with crucial DBP topics such as special education and autism care. Design/Methods: The study was approved by the UBCHO Institutionalized Review Board. Beginning in June 2021, incoming pediatric interns at UBCHO, a medium to large size pediatric residency program located in an urban community, were invited to participate in a 9-item web-based research survey inquiring about their baseline experience with educational environments, ABA and IEPs. Following the completion of each year of residency, residents were again invited to complete an optional, 29- item survey that reassessed their familiarity with ABA and IEPs and asked additional questions pertaining to residents’ self-assessed confidence addressing topics related to caring for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
