Evaluation of a technical skills training program in surgical residents

In recent years, the interest for training programs to teach technical skills has enormously grown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of surgical training on the technical skills of surgical residents.

Forty residents participated in a training program consisting of 1 training day followed by 6 weeks of autonomous training. Participants were asked to rate their confidence with the open and laparoscopic knot-tying technique by a visual analog scale before and after the training day (post), and after the period of autonomous training (follow-up). Objective assessment was performed according to the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills.

Mean (+ or - standard deviation) baseline confidence of participants with the open technique was 68.2 + or - 14.5, increased post to 76.4 + or - 13.2 (P < 0.001), and was 77.8 + or - 9.6 at follow-up (not significant). Mean objective score was post increased from 19.2 + or - 3.5 to 21.4 + or - 3.4 (P = 0.001) but decreased to 20.2 + or - 4.1 at follow-up. For the laparoscopic technique, mean confidence increased from 20.6 + or - 14.4 to 47.2 + or - 19.0 post, and 62.7 + or - 14.0 at follow-up (P < 0.001 for both). Mean objective score was post increased from 22.1 + or - 8.2 to 34.9 + or - 6.4 (P = 0.001), which did not change at follow-up (33.3 + or - 7.5).

In this study, confidence in the open knot-tying technique first increased after the initial training day and then stabilized, whereas the objective level initially improved, but returned to baseline level at follow-up. Regarding the laparoscopic technique, a significant increase of confidence after both the training and after 6 weeks of follow-up was observed. Improvement of the objective level after the training day was maintained at follow-up.