A Survey of the Current Utilization of Asynchronous Education Among Emergency Medicine Residents in the United States

Problem Medical education is transitioning from traditional learning methods. Resident interest in easily accessible education materials is forcing educators to reevaluate teaching methodology. Approach To determine emergency medicine residents' current methods of and preferences for obtaining medical knowledge, the authors created a survey and sent it to residents, at all levels of training throughout the United States, whose e-mail addresses were available via their residency's official Web site (June-December 2012). The eight-question voluntary survey asked respondents about demographics, their use of extracurricular time, and the materials they perceived as most beneficial. The authors used descriptive statistics to analyze results. Outcomes Of the 401 residents who received the e-mailed survey, 226 (56.3%) completed it. Of these, 97.7% reported spending at least one hour per week engaging in extracurricular education, and 34.5% reported spending two to four hours per week (P < .001). Time listening to podcasts was the most popular (reported by 35.0% of residents), followed by reading textbooks (33.6%) and searching Google (21.4%; P < .001). Residents endorsed podcasts as the most beneficial (endorsed by 70.3%) compared with textbooks (endorsed by 54.3%), journals (36.5%), and Google (33.8%; P < .001). Most respondents reported evaluating the quality of evidence or reviewing references rarely or less than half the time. A majority (80.0%) selected the topics they accessed based on recent clinical encounters. Next Steps The results suggest that residents are using more open access interactive multimedia tools. Medical educators must engage with current learners to guide appropriate use of these.