Development and Evaluation of a Surgical Direct Assessment Tool for Resident Training

In podiatric residency training, minimum activity volume numbers are used to assess surgical competency. The purpose of this study was to develop a standardized direct assessment form as a complement to minimum activity volume numbers. Sixteen attending physicians completed 121 direct assessment forms, evaluating six podiatric medicine and surgery residents. Evaluation scores were highly correlated with residency year. Resident feedback was positive, with the open-response portion identified as especially useful. Although further efforts may help refine this approach, the use of standardized, competency-based direct assessment has the potential to improve the training of podiatric medicine and surgery residents.