A curriculum in critical care medicine for maternal-fetal medicine fellows.

Abstract

Critical care education in maternal-fetal medicine has typically been limited or has been driven entirely by clinical cases. A pilot program was created to systematize critical care training within the context of an existing maternal-fetal medicine fellowship. The program included a lecture series, a Web-based learning module, specific scenarios played out in a human simulator lab, and a clinical intensive care unit rotation. Fellows' knowledge was assessed by pre- and posttest. Objective knowledge was demonstrated to increase after 1 yr of training. Fellows' impression of the curriculum was positive. More structured critical care medicine training is feasible within a maternal-fetal medicine fellowship. A multimodal curriculum to teach critical care within a maternal-fetal medicine fellowship appears promising and could be implemented elsewhere. Interest in this area should be cultivated.