Journal of surgical education
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Multicenter Study
"They Have to Adapt to Learn": Surgeons' Perspectives on the Role of Procedural Variation in Surgical Education.
Clinical research increasingly acknowledges the existence of significant procedural variation in surgical practice. This study explored surgeons' perspectives regarding the influence of intersurgeon procedural variation on the teaching and learning of surgical residents. ⋯ Acknowledging intersurgeon variation has important implications for curriculum development and workplace-based assessment in surgical education. Adapting to intersurgeon procedural variations may foster versatility in surgical residents. However, the existence of procedural variations and their active use in surgeons' teaching raises questions about the lack of attention to this form of complexity in current workplace-based assessment strategies. Failure to recognize the role of such variations may threaten the implementation of competency-based medical education in surgery.