Field trips as a novel means of experiential learning in ambulatory pediatrics

Parents and caregivers look to pediatric health care providers for guidance on feeding, safety issues, and child-care products for children, but trainees have infrequent first-hand exposure to child products marketed to parents. To conduct a pilot study to assess an experiential field trip as a novel method of enhancing medical knowledge in ambulatory pediatric feeding and safety. Resident physicians and medical students visited a local children's store, where they took part in an interactive store tour, product discussions, and product demonstrations led by a physician educator. Participants also completed a 20-question pretest and a 20-question posttest related to common ambulatory pediatric feeding and safety issues, based on recent American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statements and practice guidelines. Sixty-seven medical students and resident physicians participated in the study. Overall, participants' short-term knowledge significantly increased from 9.9 ± 2.6 to 15.4 ± 2.2 questions correct (P = .001), with statistically significant gains (P