Development and pretesting of an electronic learning module to train health care professionals on the use of the Pediatric Respiratory Assessment Measure to assess acute asthma severity/L'élaboration et la mise à l'essai d'un module d'apprentissage virtuel pour enseigner aux professionnels de la santé à utiliser la mesure d'évaluation respiratoire en pédiatrie pour évaluer la gravité de l'asthme aigu

Severity-specific guidelines based on the Pediatric Respiratory Assessment Measure (PRAM), a validated clinical score, reduce pediatric asthma hospitalization rates. To develop, pretest the educational value of and revise an electronic learning module to train health care professionals on the use of the PRAM. The respiratory efforts of 32 children with acute asthma were videotaped and pulmonary auscultation was recorded. A pilot module, composed of a tutorial and 18 clinical cases, was developed in French and English. Health care professionals completed the module and provided feedback. The performance of participants, case quality and difficulty, and learning curve were assessed using the Rasch test; quantitative and qualitative feedback served to revise the module. Seventy-two participants (19 physicians, 22 nurses, four respiratory therapists and 27 health care trainees) with a balanced distribution across self-declared expertise (26% beginner, 35% competent and 39% expert) were included. The accuracy of experts was superior to beginners (OR 1.79, 1.15 and 2.79, respectively). Overall performance significantly improved between the first and latter half of cases (P