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Updated: Sep 16, 2025
Emergency Undocking in Robotic Surgery: A Simulation Curriculum
Published on: May 20, 2018
Early identification of surgery residents at-risk for attrition, remediation, and board exam failure
Lorena Garcia1, Alexander C Schwed1, Christian DeVirgilio1
1Department of Surgery, Harbor-UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA.
Background:
There is an unclear correlation between residency application, resident competency, and in training exams with the composite outcome (CO), defined as successful completion of general surgery residency (GSR) without remediation and passing of boards.
Methods:
50 pre-residency and residency variables from 14 surgical residencies from 2017 to 2020 were collected. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated for the relationships between all variables and CO.
Results:
71.7 % of residents met the CO. 41 (12.2 %) of residents required remediation. USMLE 2 score (r = 0.17, p < 0.01), honors in a neurology (r = 0.19. p < 0.01), ABSITE in PGY-1 (r = 0.20, p < 0.01) and PGY-2(r = 0.22, p < 0.01) showed a significant correlation with the CO. All residency milestone variables showed a weak but statistically significant correlation with the CO (p < 0.01).
Conclusions:
Correlation is weak between pre-residency variables and the CO. Residency milestones show a significant correlation with successful completion of GSR. Future efforts should focus on early milestone assessments to identify residents at risk.
