Core Professionalism Education in Surgery: A Systematic Review

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Professionalism Studies

Background:

• Professionalism education is a critical component of surgical residency training.
• Ensuring robust professionalism education is essential for developing competent surgeons.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and analyze core professionalism education programs within surgical residency.
• To identify common features and gaps in existing surgical professionalism curricula.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature review of English-language articles on surgical professionalism education.
• Searched multiple databases (EBSCOHOST, PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science) and manual searches.
• Included studies with at least three specified features: design model, aims, teaching, assessment, and evaluation.

Main Results:

• Eight articles met the inclusion criteria from over 27,000 retrieved.
• Limited use of instructional design models (one study used ADDIE).
• Most programs aligned with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education criteria but varied in content; role modeling and case-based learning were common teaching methods; diverse assessment strategies were employed.

Conclusions:

• Core surgical professionalism education programs necessitate clearly defined developmental/instructional design models, aims, competencies, content, teaching, assessment, and evaluation methods.
• Standardization and comparability of content across programs are recommended for enhanced surgical residency education.