Assessment of Anatomical Knowledge and Core Trauma Competency Vascular Skills

Surgical residents express confidence in performing specific vascular exposures before training, but such self-reported confidence did not correlate with co-located evaluator ratings. This study reports residents' self-confidence evaluated before and after Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma (ASSET) cadaver-based training, and 12-18 mo later. We hypothesize that residents will better judge their own skill after ASSET than before when compared with evaluator ratings.

Forty PGY2-7 surgical residents performed four procedures: axillary artery (AA), brachial artery (BA), femoral artery exposure and control (FA), and lower extremity fasciotomy (FAS) at the three evaluations. Using 5-point Likert scales, surgeons self-assessed their confidence in anatomical understanding and procedure performance after each procedure and evaluators rated each surgeon accordingly.

For all the three evaluations, residents consistently rated their anatomical understanding (p < 0.04) and surgical performance (p < 0.03) higher than evaluators for both FA and FAS. Residents rated their anatomical understanding and surgical performance higher (p < 0.005) than evaluators for BA after training and up to 18 mo later. Only for third AA evaluation were there no rating differences.

Residents overrate their anatomical understanding and performance abilities for BA, FA, and FAS even after performing the procedures and being debriefed three times in 18 mo.