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A Novel Mental Health Curriculum Pilot for Pediatric Cardiology Fellows: Preparing the Subspecialist to Expand the Team

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Abstract

Mental health (MH) is an important, yet understudied area of care for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). Pediatric subspecialty fellows believe MH should be within their scope of practice, but few feel confident in their ability to appropriately screen, evaluate, manage, and make treatment referrals for youth with CHD and concurrent MH concerns. A 6-session, didactic-based curriculum was designed by an interprofessional team of experts. It was administered to pediatric cardiology fellows over 9 months during two academic years. Topics included the following: Introduction to MH and CHD, MH Screening and Clinic-Based Interventions, Psychopharmacology, Delirium, Trauma-Informed Care, and Adult CHD and Transitional Care. An investigator-designed survey was developed to assess fellow comfort with MH knowledge, screening, and treatment recommendation domains. Twenty-three fellows participated with 14 completing the pre-post survey (58% participation, 11/17 in year 1, 3/6 in year 2). Most participants were in their first year of training (9/14, 57%). Overall, fellow comfort with MH topics increased significantly (mean score 2.89 ± 0.46 vs. 3.4 ± 0.4, p = 0.0005), with improved comfort in the MH knowledge (p = 0.003) and treatment recommendation domains (p = 0.001). A didactic-based MH curriculum improves the comfort of pediatric cardiology fellows to address the MH concerns of their patients. The topics in this curriculum will continue to be refined over time and could be generalized to training programs, both nationally and across pediatric specialties, to improve MH care for high-risk populations.

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No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge The Medical Education Scholars Program in the Department of Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School in the development of this curriculum.

Funding

This study was funded by a Faculty Development Fund Grant from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Michigan Medicine, 1540 E Hospital Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Amanda D. McCormick, Sonal T. Owens, Heang M. Lim & Carolyn Vitale

  2. Division of Pediatric Psychology, Department of Pediatrics, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Catherine Dusing, Kelly E. Rea & Melissa K. Cousino

  3. Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Jessica Pierce & Nasuh Malas

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Nasuh Malas

Authors
  1. Amanda D. McCormick
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  2. Sonal T. Owens
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  3. Heang M. Lim
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  4. Carolyn Vitale
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  5. Catherine Dusing
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  6. Kelly E. Rea
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  7. Jessica Pierce
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  8. Nasuh Malas
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  9. Melissa K. Cousino
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Contributions

AM, NM, CD, KR, KP, and MC wrote the educational objectives and curricular content. AM, HL, CV, SO and MC conceptualized the curriculum. AM drafted the initial manuscript, and all authors reviewed and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda D. McCormick.

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The authors have no competing interests, financial or otherwise, to declare that are directly or indirectly related to the work in this manuscript.

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McCormick, A.D., Owens, S.T., Lim, H.M. et al. A Novel Mental Health Curriculum Pilot for Pediatric Cardiology Fellows: Preparing the Subspecialist to Expand the Team. Pediatr Cardiol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-024-03532-7

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