Using Individual Residents' Learning Trajectories to Better Understand the Impact of Gaps in Practice

To optimize learning, health professional training programs need to achieve the right balance between depth of practice (gaining more experience with particular skills) and breadth of practice (spreading experience across an array of activities). Better understanding how training for a particular skill set is impacted by periods of focus on a different skill set would allow improved curriculum and assessment design, thereby enhancing the efficiency of training and effectiveness of care. To this end, learning curves were used to compare performance in surgery after prolonged periods of practice to performance after gaps in surgical training.

Daily operative assessments from the Dalhousie obstetrics and gynecology program were analyzed retrospectively and learning curves were generated. In addition to examining the variability in learning trajectories, the impact of gaps was systematically assessed by comparing resident scores after 2 successive months in which they were not assessed operatively to those collected after 2 successive months in which they were assessed at least once.

Four thousand four hundred sixteen scores for 33 residents over a 10-year period were analyzed. Trajectories and peak performances were identified. Residents performed better during their third sequential month of being assessed (mean = 4.40, 95% CI = 4.33-4.46) relative to during months following a period of being away from the operating room for at least 2 months (mean = 4.21, 95% CI = 4.13-4.29; P < .01; d = 0.7). However, maximum performance achieved was more strongly related to the number of times residents experienced a gap in training (r = 0.50) than to the number of times residents experienced 3 consecutive months of training (r = 0.25).

Distinct patterns of development exist for individual residents. Time away from surgical practice and assessment negatively impacted short-term performance, but may improve long-term learning trajectories. This speaks to the value of spaced education and is important for the design of longitudinal skills-based training programs.