Evaluating veterinary student skill acquisition on a laparoscopic suturing exercise after simulation training

To determine whether veterinary students could train to a predefined proficiency level on a simulated intracorporeal laparoscopic suturing task.

Single group preinterventional and postinterventional study.

Ten veterinary students.

Ten veterinary students completed a questionnaire about prior experiences and watched a 7-minute demonstration video prior to performing a laparoscopic intracorporeal suture task on a simulator. Participants were tested at pretraining and for a period of 8 weeks. Overall group improvement in scores and time to completion (seconds) from pretraining to final testing was analyzed by using a Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test. The same variables were compared among individuals with different background experiences (eg, video game experience) by using a Mann-Whitney U test. The average number of repetitions to reach proficiency was recorded.

All participants reached the predefined proficiency level on the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery intracorporeal suture task. The average number of repetitions required to reach proficiency was 18 ± 7, and there was significant improvement in both time to completion (seconds) and scores from pretraining to final testing (P = .005). The number of repetitions required to reach proficiency, pretraining times, final times, pretraining scores, and final scores did not differ among veterinary students with different background experiences.

Veterinary students naïve to laparoscopic surgery can learn the technical skills required to perform a simulated intracorporeal suture through repetitive, self-directed practice on a laparoscopic box trainer regardless of prior experiences (eg, videogame experience, craft experience, chopstick use, etc).

Simulation offers an adequate platform for the standardized training of laparoscopic skills in veterinary students and likely novice laparoscopic surgeons.