Teaching Vaginal Hysterectomy via Simulation: Creation and Validation of the Objective Skills Assessment Tool for...

The use of simulation-based education to train surgeons is widely accepted. Although many authors describe the use of an Objective Skills Assessment Test (OSAT) to assess performance of various surgical procedures, there is a paucity of research on use of this modality to evaluate vaginal surgery skills. We created a vaginal hysterectomy procedure-specific checklist (PSC) to complete the OSAT (which is composed of a PSC and a global rating scale [GRS]). The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of a novel evaluation strategy for vaginal hysterectomy using an OSAT combining PSC and GRS.

This is a descriptive prospective study from a single institution. After orientation to the model, participants were filmed performing vaginal hysterectomy. A blinded grader scored each subject using the PSC and GRS.

Medical students, residents, fellows, and attendings performed vaginal hysterectomy on a simulated model. Mean PSC and GRS scores increased significantly with surgeon level of experience (P < 0.001). Procedure-specific checklist scores significantly correlated with GRS scores (P < 0.001).

The vaginal hysterectomy model and PSC have been studied across different surgeon levels using OSATs. Training programs should consider using this low-cost task trainer as a teaching tool.