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Program for laparoscopic urological skills assessment: setting certification standards for residents
Irene M Tjiam1, Barbara M A Schout, Ad J M Hendrikx
1Catharina Hospital Eindhoven, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Summary
The Program for Laparoscopic Urological Skills (PLUS) assessment reliably sets surgical skill certification standards for urology residents. This evaluation tool ensures competency for advancing laparoscopic surgical skills.
Area of Science:
- Urology
- Surgical Education
- Medical Simulation
Background:
- Increasing demand for standardized surgical proficiency benchmarks.
- Need for reliable assessment tools in surgical training.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the reliability of the Program for Laparoscopic Urological Skills (PLUS) assessment.
- To establish a certification standard for second-year urological residents.
Main Methods:
- Assessed 50 participants on performance time and quality for PLUS reliability.
- Utilized a generalizability coefficient of 0.8 for reliability assessment.
- Defined pass/fail standards based on laparoscopic experience levels (novice, intermediate, expert).
Main Results:
- Achieved inter-trial reliability >0.80 with two trials per task.
- Attained inter-rater reliability of 0.79 for quality measurements.
- Determined pass/fail benchmarks and found pass rates of 63.64% and 9.09% for second-year residents.
Conclusions:
- The PLUS assessment demonstrates reliability for certifying urology residents.
- PLUS serves as a foundational tool for advancing laparoscopic competency.
- Establishes a benchmark for resident progression in surgical skills.
