Comprehensive assessment of thyroidectomy skills development: a pilot project

Area of Science:

• Surgical Education
• Medical Assessment Tools
• Thyroid Surgery

Background:

• Assessing surgical competency is crucial for patient safety.
• Objective evaluation tools are needed to standardize surgical training.
• Thyroid surgery requires specialized technical skills that need precise assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate a new evaluation tool for thyroid surgery skills.
• To determine the reliability and feasibility of the assessment instrument.
• To measure the development of surgical trainees in the operating room.

Main Methods:

• Developed an Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills-based instrument using a modified Delphi technique.
• Conducted a prospective validation study over one year with 17 surgical residents and fellows.
• Utilized a task-based checklist (TBC) and global rating scale (GRS) for performance evaluation.

Main Results:

• The tool demonstrated construct validity across four clinical levels.
• High internal consistency was observed (Cronbach α = 0.96) for both TBC and GRS.
• Strong correlations were found between TBC and GRS, both within and across trainees.

Conclusions:

• The developed instrument is a valid, reliable, and feasible method for assessing thyroid surgery competency.
• The tool provides timely formative feedback to identify areas needing further training.
• It facilitates longitudinal tracking of resident performance for effective surgical development.