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Abstract Introduction Exposure to sleep medicine education in ACGME accredited parent specialties of sleep medicine is scarce and varied. Literature states sleep-related didactics average 4.75 hours per year; less than 10% of programs have graduates pursuing sleep medicine fellowship. In the last five years at University of Kentucky’s Family and Community Medicine residency (UK FM), only 4 of 1200 hours of didactics (less than 1%) have been dedicated to sleep. Lack of sleep education during residency leads to patient care gaps, and deficiency of exposure to this field dissuades trainees from pursuing sleep fellowship. To understand UK FM residents’ opinions of sleep medicine, a survey was distributed before and after a formal lecture series. Methods Google surveys were disseminated via text message to residents. Submissions remained anonymous. The pre- and post-lecture surveys had congruent questions about sleep education, sleep disorder management, and tested knowledge about sleep disorders. The lecture series had three one-hour lectures during didactics. One week after the last lecture, the post-survey was disseminated. Results were then compared. Results The current cohort is comprised of 17 residents. Response rate was 94% for the pre-survey and 76% for the post-survey. After lectures, 46% agreed they had adequate education and understanding of sleep medicine compared to 0% before. Regarding managing specific disorders, more residents answered they had higher comfort after the lectures. Majority of the residents (50%) answered 2/3 knowledge questions correctly after the lecture series. Overall trends indicated increased confidence and knowledge after the lectures. Conclusion By simply increasing sleep education didactics by 3 hours through this project, the total percentage of sleep didactics in resident education was tripled. This increased confidence and competency of residents in sleep education. Our study highlights the current gaps in resident education related to sleep, the need to increase sleep didactics in sleep medicine feeder residencies, and ultimately how this education increases resident confidence and competency in sleep management. Support (if any)
Tripathi et al. (Sat,) studied this question.