The Efficacy of a Web-Based Logbook in the Monitoring of Educational Activities of Emergency Medicine Residents

Background: Regularly monitoring of educational activities is of undisputed importance in residency training programs. Various educational and training activities can be recorded in a logbook, including giving a lecture, participating in training courses, morning reports, providing particular procedures and skills. Objectives: The current study aimed to compare a newly launched web-based logbook to a paper-based logbook to identify potential strengths and weaknesses. Methods: Emergency medicine residents of postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) and 2 (PGY2) and faculty members participated in the present study. Electronically collected data from February-April 2014 were compared to those of paper logbooks for the same period in the previous year. Furthermore, to evaluate the perspectives of both students and faculty members on the web-based logbook, a survey was implemented. Results: In total 47 residents recorded their activities in the web-based logbook. For the same period in the previous year, logbooks of 40 residents were available. The frequency of work shifts in paper and web-based logbook was 668 and 1020, respectively (P = 0.4). However, a significant difference was observed concerning the work shifts recorded in the logbook and those confirmed by a faculty member [416 (62.3%) in the paper logbook and 945 (92.7%) in the web-based logbook, P value = 0.05]. Also, the frequency of unconfirmed procedures, review of medical cases, morning reports, rotations, and direct observation of procedural skills were significantly lower in the web-based logbook (P value = 0.0001). Based on the results of the survey, 55.55% of faculty members and 66.66% of residents reported the effectiveness of the web-based logbook. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the potential of web-based logbooks to improve recording activities of residents and assisting faculty members to precisely monitor their activities.