The effectiveness of video feedback in the acquisition of orthopedic technical skills

The addition of video feedback to bench model training offers residents the opportunity to see themselves perform a surgical task. Videotaped feedback therefore promotes self-evaluation, a critical learning skill, and also has the potential to influence how a resident executes a skill once they have had the opportunity to see themselves perform the task.

Twenty-nine surgical residents were video recorded while performing three technical skills. They then were randomly assigned to receive either no feedback, video feedback alone, or video feedback with the help of an expert, an orthopedic surgeon. The surgical task was then repeated. Orthopedic surgeons evaluated the videotapes using the global rating scale and technical checklist form.

One-way between-subject analysis of variance comparing the pretest and post-test difference scores on three different measures for each of the three tasks revealed no statistically significant differences. After controlling for rater variance, the global rating scores across the three surgical tasks did not reveal any statistically significant differences.

This study failed to demonstrate an improvement in technical skills based on utilization of video feedback.