Abstract 439

Background: RE must balance RL needs and care of critically ill children. Objective: Utility scores monitor balance and satisfaction between RL and RE needs. Design: From 7/97 to 6/98, 43 PICU RL ranked best to worst 9 educational profiles. Mutually exclusive factors and [intensities] including CLINICAL SUPERVISION [structured, flexible, independent], PROCEDURE SUPERVISION [structured, flexible, independent], TEACHING STYLE [interactive, formal lectures, independent study], and EVALUATION [standardized test, oral interview, formal presentation] were organized into 9 orthogonal 4-factor-3-intensity profile arrays and analyzed using conjoint analysis. Utility score (0-9) and importance (utility range) were tallied. Changes in summed utility were used to assess and predict overall impact of curriculum changes of resident satisfaction. Results. The importance of categories was: Clinical supervision (34% P,44% ER), Procedural supervision (16% P, 22% ER), Teaching style, (23% P, 5% ER) and Evaluation (27% P, 30% ER). Summed utility scores of category intensities demonstrated current program (flexible supervision, structured procedures, interactive teaching, oral interview) would provide 97% of maximal utility which improved but would decrease to 93% of maximum if residents instead were evaluated by standardized tests. Conclusion: The assignment of utility scores to the elements of formal education can maximize the utility of the curriculum even in the face of diverse RL preferences.