An educational improvement study on improving delirium learning through a novel delirium infographic in a public hospital setting

Introduction The medical education landscape is evolving with a paradigm shift towards harnessing microlearning applications. As an emerging pedagogy, infographics enable students and clinicians to engage in “just-in-time” learning. This educational improvement study evaluates a novel infographic to improve delirium learning among medical students within a Geriatric Psychiatry Liaison Service at Changi General Hospital, a public hospital in Singapore. Methods In August 2022, Duke-NUS year 2 medical students had a clinical attachment with the liaison team during their two-week placement with the Department of Psychological Medicine at the study site in Changi General Hospital, a public hospital with over 1000 beds. The interdisciplinary study team comprised an Old Age Psychiatrist as the study lead, General Adult Psychiatrists, a Geriatrician, a Gastroenterologist, a Pharmacist, an advanced practice nurse, two medical students and a data analyst. The study had a time frame of 18 months from August 2022. Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles were used to design, implement, and assess the infographic’s effectiveness with feedback from the interdisciplinary team on the needs assessment survey and infographic content. In the first PDSA cycle, we designed a needs assessment questionnaire to facilitate a student-centric approach to the infographic’s design. In subsequent PDSA cycles (cycles 2 to 6), we implemented and evaluated the infographic’s usefulness in delirium learning using an anonymous qualitative survey with a learner-reflective approach. All medical students attending the liaison service from September 2022 to November 2023 were eligible to participate in the study; consent was voluntary and implied upon completing the survey. Results The results of thematic analysis from 28 medical student reflections in 6 PDSA cycles demonstrated knowledge enhancement in all PDSA cycles; the other recurring themes were the infographic’s comprehensiveness and visually appealing aesthetics. Conclusions This educational improvement study supports implementing an infographic with microlearning as the pedagogy to augment delirium learning in a Geriatric Psychiatry Liaison service.