A Novel Approach to Objective Validation of YouTube™ Educational Videos for the Instruction of Regional Anesthesia Nerve Blocks

Background YouTube™ (“YouTube”) is often used as an educational tool to instruct anesthesia providers on regional anesthesia nerve blocks. However, there is no current objective standard to assess the educational quality of these user-uploaded videos. A new approach was used to objectively validate these videos by comparing them to high quality educational sources for the seven most commonly used nerve blocks. Objective We sought to evaluate the educational quality of user-uploaded videos when compared to the highest quality anesthesia society websites (NYSORA, ACEP, USRA) Methods We first catalogued the characteristics of the instructional material on three of the highest quality anesthesia society websites (NYSORA, ACEP, USRA) into 18 different items. Next, we surveyed the five most popular anesthesia block videos on YouTube for each of the seven peripheral nerve blocks in question. The presence or absence of each category was recorded. Results Although there were varying degrees of correlation between the high quality sources and the videos, rarely did YouTube videos contain as high a percentage of these educational characteristics as the well-established sources. Some videos contained very few of these important educational characteristics. Conclusion Although YouTube has been used an educational tool, we recommend that only high quality sources be used to teach or illustrate regional anesthesia nerve blocks.