Animated Curriculum to Improve Memory Retention in Nurse Anesthesia Students (1 Class A CE)

Both nursing and graduate education have been tasked with evolving curricula to improve critical thinking in students. Emerging pedogeological modes have encouraged new modalities to make education active and learner centered. Many concepts in the nurse anesthesia curriculum are abstract, which leads to difficulty when applied critically to clinical anesthesia practice. Because of the vague nature of pain theory in anesthesia practice, it may not be easy to apply this critical topic to clinical anesthesia practice. Animations offer a way to visualize concepts that may be difficult to grasp. A pilot study was performed to determine if an animated curriculum covering Pain Theory improved the long-term memory retention of student registered nurse anesthesiologists. Ten participants were randomized to receive either an animated lecture discussing Pain Theory or to participate in a traditional, didactic lecture. Statistical analysis revealed no difference in the test scores among the group. A post-lecture qualitative survey found that students preferred an animated curriculum over a traditional lecture. However, a hybrid to include both would be a superior educational offering if given a choice. The study was replicated in an additional cohort of 20 participants, yielding the same results.