The Feasibility and Effectiveness of an Online Curriculum for Virtual Onboarding/Orientation of Graduate Medical Education Learners During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Scott Holliday,1 Nasir Hussain,2 Matthew Lang,1 Coranita Burt,1 Amber Clevenger,1 Jeff Barbee,3 Amanda R Start,3 Juan Fiorda-Diaz,2 Daniel Clinchot,4 Tiffany Boone,1 Michael Essandoh1,2 1Office of Graduate Medical Education, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA; 2Department of Anesthesiology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA; 3Office of Curriculum and Scholarship, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA; 4Department of Biomedical Education and Anatomy, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USACorrespondence: Michael Essandoh, Office of Graduate Medical Education; Department of Anesthesiology, The Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center, 410 W 10th Ave, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA, Email michael.essandoh@osumc.eduBackground: Graduate medical education (GME) orientation/onboarding is conventionally an in-person activity, but the COVID-19 pandemic prompted virtual approaches to learner onboarding. However, online GME onboarding strategies have not been disseminated in the literature.Objective: To determine the usefulness of an online curriculum for GME learner orientation at a large sponsoring institution using an electronic survey. The primary outcome was to discover the usefulness of our online curriculum for GME onboarding, and secondary outcomes included identifying barriers to implementation and weaknesses associated with online GME orientation.Methods: We created an online GME orientation curriculum to onboard incoming learners (from June 1 to August 31, 2020) and electronically surveyed our learners to determine the usefulness of this novel approach. We conducted orientation sessions and electronically recorded questionnaire responses using CarmenCanvas, our institutional learning management system. Linear regression analysis was performed to identify factors predicting satisfaction with virtual GME orientation using IBM SPSS Statistics, Version 26.0 (Armonk, NY, USA).Results: Of 353 trainees, 272 completed the survey for a 77% response rate. 97% of respondents reported that the curriculum supported performance of learner duties. 79% of trainees perceived the overall quality as “very good” or “good”, 91% responded that the curriculum provided “effective learning”, 94% reported “accessing the course content easily”, 92% reported “easily navigating the curriculum”, 91% described the curriculum as “well-organized”, and 87% reported that the lectures “supported their learning”.Conclusion: Online delivery of a comprehensive GME orientation curriculum is useful and facilitates learner education, training, and integration into a large GME institution in the COVID-19 era.Keywords: online graduate medical education orientation, graduate medical education orientation curriculum, COVID-19, resident and fellow onboarding, sponsoring institution, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education