Strategies for New Skill Acquisition by Practicing Surgeons.

Area of Science:

• Surgical Education
• Medical Training Technologies
• Continuing Professional Development

Background:

• Practicing surgeons employ various methods for learning new procedures and technologies.
• Understanding surgeon preferences and barriers is crucial for optimizing surgical training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess how practicing surgeons utilize available training methods.
• To identify methods perceived as most effective by surgeons.
• To determine barriers hindering the adoption of more effective training methods.

Main Methods:

• An online survey was distributed to 150 faculty surgeons at two Midwestern academic health centers.
• Statistical analysis included McNemar's Test for nominal data and paired t-tests for Likert-like data.

Main Results:

• The survey achieved an 81% response rate (122/150).
• Most surgeons (98%) learned new procedures/technologies via formal training.
• Commonly used methods included observing expert cases (78%) and self-directed study (66%), while mini-fellowships were rare (6%).
• Perceived most effective methods were operating under supervision (31%) and mini-fellowships (16%), contrasting with common practice.
• Barriers cited were time commitment and confidence in safe, independent implementation.

Conclusions:

• A significant gap exists between the surgical training methods surgeons commonly use and those they believe are most effective.
• Surgeons' confidence in their abilities and the perceived time demands of advanced training methods are key barriers to adopting more effective strategies.
• Optimizing surgical training requires addressing these perceived barriers to align current practices with effective learning modalities.