Self-assessment, and not continuous training, improves basic open suturing skills.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Skills Training
• Simulation-Based Learning

Background:

• Clinical exposure is crucial for developing and maintaining suturing skills.
• When clinical exposure is limited, structured training is essential.
• This study investigates methods to improve basic open suturing skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of continuous training, reflection before practice, and self-assessment on basic open suturing skills.
• To compare the effectiveness of different training strategies in medical students.
• To identify optimal methods for surgical skills acquisition.

Main Methods:

• Medical students performed suturing tasks pre- and post-rotation.
• Three groups were studied: clinical exposure only, continuous training, and continuous training with self-assessment.
• Performance was measured using a tracking system and a composite score.

Main Results:

• All groups showed significant improvement in suturing tasks from pre-test to after-test.
• The self-assessment group demonstrated superior initial performance in most tasks.
• The self-assessment group showed smaller improvements in time, distance, and composite scores, indicating a more efficient learning curve.

Conclusions:

• Integrating reflection before practice and self-assessment into continuous training can enhance early surgical skills.
• These methods appear particularly beneficial for improving basic open suturing tasks at the beginning of the learning curve.
• Self-assessment strategies may optimize the acquisition of fundamental surgical competencies.