Informed consent training improves surgery resident performance in simulated encounters with standardized patients

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Patient Communication

Background:

• Informed consent is crucial for patient-physician communication in surgery.
• Surgical trainees receive limited education on obtaining informed consent.
• This study investigated methods to enhance resident performance in informed consent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of targeted training on surgical residents' informed consent skills.
• To assess improvements in both the discussion and documentation of informed consent.
• To identify persistent challenges in the informed consent process for surgical trainees.

Main Methods:

• Eighty PGY-1 surgical residents participated in a randomized study.
• Residents practiced obtaining informed consent with standardized patients for two surgical cases.
• Training involved didactic sessions, with performance assessed via standardized patient checklists and rater-evaluated notes.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements were observed in both resident discussions (Checklist scores) and documentation (Note scores) post-training (P < .01).
• A statistically significant difference persisted between the quality of informed consent discussions and documentation (P < .01).

Conclusions:

• Didactic training effectively enhanced surgical residents' ability to discuss and document informed consent.
• Despite improvements, a disparity between discussion and documentation skills highlights areas for future educational focus.
• Further training specifically targeting informed consent documentation is recommended for surgical residents.