Internal medicine residents' knowledge about sepsis: effects of a teaching intervention.

The short- and long-term effects of a single teaching intervention for internal medicine residents are not known. Since sepsis is a prevalent and important disease and both therapeutic and diagnostic interventions have been protocolized, we investigated the effects of a sepsis-based single teaching intervention. A prospective before-and-after education study was performed among residents who attended a regional professional training for internal medicine. All residents who participated were invited to complete a questionnaire about the assessment of symptoms and the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis. The questionnaire was filled out before, directly after, and four to six months after the teaching intervention. The overall questionnaire score was expressed on a 0 to 10 scale. A total of 253 questionnaires from 109 training-grade doctors were collected. At baseline, the 'assessment of symptoms of sepsis' score was significantly lower than the 'diagnosis and treatment' score. Following the education session, training-grade doctors' knowledge about sepsis definitions and diagnosis and treatment of sepsis increased from (mean +/- SD ) 6.1 +/- 1.6 to 8.2 +/- 1.2 (p<0.0001. Moreover, four to six months after the teaching intervention, this effect was sustained (p<0.0001 compared with test 1), resulting in a mean score of 7.6 +/- 1.1. Our single teaching intervention resulted in improved and sustained knowledge on the assessment of symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of sepsis.