Evaluation of a Structured Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery Resident Rotation Curriculum

Residency education is moving toward competency-based learning, which requires novel educational methods. One solution is structured learning through a formalized curriculum.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the educational aspects of a novel structured curriculum in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery.

This was a prospective cohort study of third-year obstetrics and gynecology residents who rotated on the female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery service. The curriculum was organized into 7 specific topics with weekly required reading, key specialty articles, and reviewed quizzes on subspecialty topics adapted from the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology Guide to Learning. A prerotation and postrotation self-assessment of pelvic anatomy and pelvic floor dysfunction content comprehension was assessed using a Likert scale (0-10) for each domain.

Obstetrics and gynecology residents from 4 academic years resulted in a total of 17 paired assessments for analysis. Each of the 7 domains showed significant improvement among all academic years, with a mean increase of 4.9 ± 0.8 points ( P < 0.001). The 2 domains that showed the greatest improvement were stress urinary incontinence (5.5 ± 1.3, P < 0.001) and pelvic organ prolapse (5.5 ± 1.9, P < 0.001). There was no significant association between score improvement and the number of previous surgical rotations or having the rotation in the first or second half of the academic year.

This study demonstrated that a structured curriculum in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery was associated with significant improvement in self-assessed perceived resident knowledge during the subspecialty rotation. This approach could be applied to other rotations and direct education curriculum development.