Incorporating Intraoperative Assessments of Surgical Trainees Performing Open Surgery Into Summative Trainee...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Competency Assessment

Background:

• Real-world assessment of surgical competence is crucial.
• Systematic incorporation of workplace-based operative skills assessments into summative evaluations remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review intraoperative surgical skills assessment tools for their incorporation into summative evaluations.
• To identify facilitators and barriers to implementation.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review of literature from January 2012 to December 2021 was conducted.
• Searched multiple databases including Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane.
• Data extraction and narrative synthesis followed PRISMA Extension Guidelines for Scoping Reviews.

Main Results:

• Twenty-two articles described 11 surgical assessments; all were cohort studies.
• No study explicitly outlined the incorporation of assessment tools into summative reviews.
• Four assessment types automatically integrated results for use in Clinical Competency Committee (CCC) meetings.

Conclusions:

• A systematic method for integrating workplace surgical assessments into summative resident evaluations is not described or uniformly implemented.
• Despite claimed benefits of formative assessments, their integration into summative evaluations is lacking.