Faculty Entrustment and Resident Entrustability.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Health Professions Education

Background:

• The shift towards entrustable professional activities in surgical education necessitates understanding factors influencing resident entrustability.
• Prior research indicates a link between intraoperative faculty entrustment and resident entrustability, but broader validation is needed across diverse training programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate intraoperative faculty and resident behaviors within four university surgical training programs.
• To determine if faculty entrustment is associated with resident entrustability in these settings.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 94 faculty and 129 residents across 4 university surgical training programs (October 2018-May 2022).
• The OpTrust tool was utilized to independently assess intraoperative faculty entrustment and resident entrustability behaviors.
• Purposeful sampling ensured variation in case type, difficulty, faculty-resident pairings, faculty experience, and resident training level.

Main Results:

• Analysis of 338 observed cases revealed significant associations between resident postgraduate year (PGY) and faculty entrustment with resident entrustability.
• Path analysis confirmed that faculty entrustment directly influences resident entrustability.
• Faculty entrustment also mediated the relationship between resident PGY and resident entrustability across all participating institutions.

Conclusions:

• Faculty entrustment is a consistent factor associated with resident entrustability in surgical training programs.
• Interventions aimed at improving faculty entrustment behaviors could enhance intraoperative teaching and facilitate resident advancement.