Bridging the gap: theory-based design of a microsurgical skills course for ophthalmology residents

Although theory-based schemes for course design are widely used in educational settings, making use of cognitive theory in the design of surgical skills courses in ophthalmology is rare. The primary aim of this study is to describe the application of instructional design, an established theory-based approach in course design, to the development of a surgical skills course for ophthalmology residents. The secondary aim of this study is to assess the educational effect of this theory-based course.

A 1-day skills course was designed according to Gagné׳s events of instruction model, which was employed as a template for the instructional sequence of learning steps. Skills acquisition following the implementation of the model was measured with precourse and postcourse assessments.

Moorfields Eye Hospital organized the 1-day annual intermediate surgical skills course, which was hosted at the Royal College of Ophthalmologists' microsurgical skills laboratory.

A total of 20 ophthalmology residents of Moorfields Eye Hospital participated in the study.

A 1-day surgical skills course was formulated according to the instructional design principles outlined. The 4 objectives of the course (corneal suturing, corneal gluing, intravitreal injections, and eyelid suturing) were addressed in a parallel fashion as to allow for multiple objectives to be processed simultaneously, in the context of the instructional design sequence. Assessments demonstrated significant improvement in skills acquisition for the 4 course objectives.

Instructional design is a valuable tool for planning effective surgical training courses as it is portable, allowing its application to a wide variety of outcomes and settings, and its terminology is simple and understandable to those working in clinical education.