Leadership Perceptions, Educational Struggles and Barriers, and Effective Modalities for Teaching Vertigo and the HINTS Exam: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Directors

Introduction: The utility of the three-part bedside oculomotor exam HINTS (head impulse test, nystagmus, test of skew) in the hands of emergency physicians remains under debate despite being supported by the most recent literature. Educators historically lack consensus on how specifically to teach t...

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Main Authors: Mary McLean, Justin Stowens, Ryan Barnicle, Negar Mafi, Kaushal Shah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eScholarship Publishing, University of California 2024-12-01
Series:Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
Online Access:https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2bh1k2jh
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author Mary McLean
Justin Stowens
Ryan Barnicle
Negar Mafi
Kaushal Shah
author_facet Mary McLean
Justin Stowens
Ryan Barnicle
Negar Mafi
Kaushal Shah
author_sort Mary McLean
collection DOAJ
description Introduction: The utility of the three-part bedside oculomotor exam HINTS (head impulse test, nystagmus, test of skew) in the hands of emergency physicians remains under debate despite being supported by the most recent literature. Educators historically lack consensus on how specifically to teach this skill to emergency medicine (EM) residents, and it is unknown whether and how EM residency programs have begun to implement HINTS training into their curricula. We aimed to characterize the state of HINTS education in EM residency and develop a needs assessment. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we administered a survey to EM residency directors, the themes of which centered around HINTS education perceptions, practices, resources, and needs. We analyzed Likert scales with means and 95% confidence intervals for normally distributed data, and with medians and interquartile ranges for non-normally distributed data. Frequency distributions, means, and standard deviations were used in all other analyses. Results: Of 250 eligible participants, 201 (80.4%) responded and consented. Of the 192 respondents providing usable data, 149/191 (78.0%) believed the HINTS exam is valuable to teach; 124/192 (64.6%) reported HINTS educational offerings in conference; and 148/192 (77.1%) reported clinical bedside teaching by faculty. The most-effective educational modalities were clinical bedside teaching, online videos, and simulation. Subtopic teaching struggles with regard to HINTS were head impulse test and test-of-skew conduction and interpretation, selection of the correct patients, and overall HINTS interpretation. Teaching barriers centered around lack of faculty expertise, concern for poor HINTS reproducibility, and lack of resources. Leadership would dedicate a mean of 2.0 hours/year (SD 1.3 hours/year) to implementing a formal, standardized HINTS curriculum. Conclusion: Despite controversy surrounding the utility of the HINTS exam in EM, most residency directors believe it is important to teach. This needs assessment can guide development of formal educational and simulation curricula focusing on residency directors’ cited HINTS exam educational struggles, barriers, and reported most-effective teaching modalities.
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spelling doaj-art-c14c1a0612d2416c93688f59d61473592025-02-07T16:29:04ZengeScholarship Publishing, University of CaliforniaWestern Journal of Emergency Medicine1936-900X1936-90182024-12-01261707710.5811/westjem.2078720787Leadership Perceptions, Educational Struggles and Barriers, and Effective Modalities for Teaching Vertigo and the HINTS Exam: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine Residency Program DirectorsMary McLean0Justin Stowens1Ryan Barnicle2Negar Mafi3Kaushal Shah4AdventHealth East Orlando, Department of Emergency Medicine, Orlando, FloridaChristianaCare Health System, Department of Emergency Medicine, Newark, DelawareThe Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Providence, Rhode IslandSan Joaquin General Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, French Camp, CaliforniaWeill Cornell Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, New York, New YorkIntroduction: The utility of the three-part bedside oculomotor exam HINTS (head impulse test, nystagmus, test of skew) in the hands of emergency physicians remains under debate despite being supported by the most recent literature. Educators historically lack consensus on how specifically to teach this skill to emergency medicine (EM) residents, and it is unknown whether and how EM residency programs have begun to implement HINTS training into their curricula. We aimed to characterize the state of HINTS education in EM residency and develop a needs assessment. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we administered a survey to EM residency directors, the themes of which centered around HINTS education perceptions, practices, resources, and needs. We analyzed Likert scales with means and 95% confidence intervals for normally distributed data, and with medians and interquartile ranges for non-normally distributed data. Frequency distributions, means, and standard deviations were used in all other analyses. Results: Of 250 eligible participants, 201 (80.4%) responded and consented. Of the 192 respondents providing usable data, 149/191 (78.0%) believed the HINTS exam is valuable to teach; 124/192 (64.6%) reported HINTS educational offerings in conference; and 148/192 (77.1%) reported clinical bedside teaching by faculty. The most-effective educational modalities were clinical bedside teaching, online videos, and simulation. Subtopic teaching struggles with regard to HINTS were head impulse test and test-of-skew conduction and interpretation, selection of the correct patients, and overall HINTS interpretation. Teaching barriers centered around lack of faculty expertise, concern for poor HINTS reproducibility, and lack of resources. Leadership would dedicate a mean of 2.0 hours/year (SD 1.3 hours/year) to implementing a formal, standardized HINTS curriculum. Conclusion: Despite controversy surrounding the utility of the HINTS exam in EM, most residency directors believe it is important to teach. This needs assessment can guide development of formal educational and simulation curricula focusing on residency directors’ cited HINTS exam educational struggles, barriers, and reported most-effective teaching modalities.https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2bh1k2jh
spellingShingle Mary McLean
Justin Stowens
Ryan Barnicle
Negar Mafi
Kaushal Shah
Leadership Perceptions, Educational Struggles and Barriers, and Effective Modalities for Teaching Vertigo and the HINTS Exam: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Directors
Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
title Leadership Perceptions, Educational Struggles and Barriers, and Effective Modalities for Teaching Vertigo and the HINTS Exam: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Directors
title_full Leadership Perceptions, Educational Struggles and Barriers, and Effective Modalities for Teaching Vertigo and the HINTS Exam: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Directors
title_fullStr Leadership Perceptions, Educational Struggles and Barriers, and Effective Modalities for Teaching Vertigo and the HINTS Exam: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Directors
title_full_unstemmed Leadership Perceptions, Educational Struggles and Barriers, and Effective Modalities for Teaching Vertigo and the HINTS Exam: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Directors
title_short Leadership Perceptions, Educational Struggles and Barriers, and Effective Modalities for Teaching Vertigo and the HINTS Exam: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Directors
title_sort leadership perceptions educational struggles and barriers and effective modalities for teaching vertigo and the hints exam a national survey of emergency medicine residency program directors
url https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2bh1k2jh
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