Orientation program for emergency medicine residents.

An orientation curriculum was developed for incoming residents in emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati (UC) in July, 1976. The major objectives of the orientation were 1) to identify and delineate the subject matter of emergency medicine, and 2) to review the basic elements of emergency medicine. Results of a pre- and posttest using the residency program at the Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP) as a control group are presented. The pretest scores of the study groups showed no significant difference at a .05 level. The posttest, however, resulted in a significant improvement of the UC scores (p less than 0.05), while little change occurred in the MCP scores. An inter-group evaluation shows the UC group to have out-performed the MCP group significantly (p less than 0.05). Results of a one-year posttest showed the UC residents scoring an overall average of six points higher on the test. However, the general difference between the two groups of residents was not significant at the 0.05 level.