Use of Video Review to Evaluate House Staff Performance of Well-Baby Examinations: A Preliminary Investigation

Pediatric training programs need to evaluate many house staff skills, including those involved in performing well-baby examinations. To assess pediatric resident performance, we videotaped 23 pediatric residents performing well-baby examinations at the beginning and end of a 6-month ambulatory pediatric block rotation. Each pediatric resident and two faculty members (a clinician and a behavioral scientist) participated in an interactive review of each videotape shortly after the well-baby examination. These faculty-resident triads simultaneously rated each well-baby examination on 31 items listed in the American Academy of Pediatrics “Guidelines for Well Child Care.”1 After the 6-month ambulatory experience, the residents as a group demonstrated improved coverage of 13 items, no change on 11 items (6 of which all residents completed on both the preevaluation and postevaluation), and a decreased coverage of 7 items on the questionnaire. The results suggest that video-assisted interactive review may be a feasible and effective means of teaching and evaluating performance of the well-baby examination.