Creating a Flexible Curriculum Tool for Pediatric Palliative Care Rotating Learners

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a new educational tool can improve the training and educational process for learners who will already be taking part in the palliative care rotation at Children's National Hospital. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• If learners who are trained using the educational tool more frequently answer strongly agree/agree to the question "I achieved the standard objectives of the palliative care rotation"
• If learners who are trained using the educational tool more frequently answer strongly agree/agree to the question "I achieved my specific objectives of the palliative care rotation"

If there is a comparison group: Researchers will compare responses from learners who did and and did not have their rotation guided by the educational tool to see if there are differences.

Participants will engage in their palliative care rotation as they would have otherwise, though those in the intervention group will be provided different resources. They will be asked to provide responses to survey questions on their end-of-rotation evaluation, and some will be invited to participate in a focus group at the end of their rotation.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Palliative Care Education
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Standard Palliative Care Education; Behavioral: Rotation Using Flexible Education Tool

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 30
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Maryland
    • Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, 20901-4235
      • Childrens National Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• must be an adult, greater than or equal to 18 years old
• must have rotated with the pediatric palliative care team for at least 1/2 day during the study period
• must speak English

Exclusion Criteria:

• there are no exclusion criteria for this study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Sequential Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention - Education Using Flexible Curriculum Tool; This is the education using a new educational tool that tailors resources, guidance, and education to learner objectives, level of training, learning style, and palliative care experience.	Behavioral: Rotation Using Flexible Education Tool; The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a flexible education tool that utilizes a palliative care education database of resources to tailor the structure of a learner rotation to their specific needs. At the moment, education is provided in an ad hoc manner, based on the specific learning objectives, bandwidth of preceptors, and personal knowledge base and resource library. The purpose of this intervention is to provide a standardized database of resources that can be pulled from in an automated manner to design a tailored curriculum for each learner based on their personal learning objectives, learning style, year in training, and experience with palliative care.
Active Comparator: Control - Standard Education; This is the standard palliative care education that most learners receive.	Behavioral: Standard Palliative Care Education; This is the typical palliative care education that is provided in an ad hoc manner, based on the specific learning objectives, bandwidth of preceptors, and personal knowledge base and resource library.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Response to the question "I achieved the standard objectives of the palliative care rotation."	Measured using Likert scale with 5 choices, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Response to the question "I achieved my specific objectives of the palliative care rotation."	Measured using Likert scale with 5 choices, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt
Response to the question "I was provided with a variety of resources to meet my learning objectives."	Measured using Likert scale with 5 choices, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt
Response to the question "The education I received matched my level of training."	Measured using Likert scale with 5 choices, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt
Response to the question "The education was appropriate to my previous exposure to hospice and palliative medicine."	Measured using Likert scale with 5 choices, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt
Response to the question "The education on this rotation matched my learning style."	Measured using Likert scale with 5 choices, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt
Response to the question "This rotation was valuable."	Measured using Likert scale with 5 choices, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt
Response to the question "The clinical educators promoted an open, respectful, and safe environment for discussion, learning, and improvement."	Measured using Likert scale with 5 choices, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt
Response to the question "I would recommend this rotation to other learners."	Measured using Likert scale with 5 choices, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Learner confidence in meeting each standard rotation objective before and after the rotation	Measured using a Likert scale of 1-5, 1 meaning Strongly Disagree, 5 meaning Strongly Agree, in the domains of Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, Interpersonal and Communication Skills, Professionalism, Practice-Based Learning and Improvement, and Systems-Based Practice	Measured on an evaluation survey sent to participants within 2 weeks after the last day of their rotation, response due within 4 weeks after receipt

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Children's National Research Institute

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): March 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): March 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 26, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 4, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): February 11, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 13, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 11, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00001648

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No