Journal of surgical education
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To determine if a knot-tying checklist can provide a valid score and if the checklist can be used by novice surgeons in a reliable manner. ⋯ The knot-tying checklist provides a valid score for basic surgical knot-tying and can be used by novice and experienced raters. Its use supports peer assessment of performance in a surgical skills laboratory setting.
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Injuries are a significant cause of death and disability, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Health care systems in resource-poor countries lack personnel and are ill equipped to treat severely injured patients; therefore, many injury-related deaths occur after hospital admission. ⋯ The burden of injuries in sub-Saharan Africa remains high. At this institution, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of injury and injury-related death. The most significant predictor of in-hospital mortality is the presence of head or spinal injury. These findings may be mitigated by a comprehensive injury-prevention effort targeting drivers and other road users and by increased attention and resources dedicated to the treatment of patients with head and/or spine injuries in the hospital setting.
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As one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world, human trauma and injury disproportionately affects individuals in developing countries. To meet the need for improved trauma care in Egypt, the Sequential Trauma Emergency/Education ProgramS (STEPS) course was created through the collaborative effort of U.S. and Egyptian physicians. The objective of course development was to create a high-quality, modular, adaptable, and sustainable trauma care course that could be readily adopted by a lower- or middle-income country. ⋯ Success of this collaborative educational program is demonstrated by the numbers of physicians trained, the adoption of STEPS by the Egyptian Emergency Medicine Board, and program continuance after transitioning to in-country leadership and trainers.
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Self-directed learning (SDL) can be as effective as instructor-led training. It employs less instructional resources and is potentially a more efficient educational approach. Although SDL is encouraged among residents in our surgical training program via 24-hour access to surgical task trainers and online modules, residents report that they seldom practice. We hypothesized that a mentor-guided SDL approach would improve practice habits among our residents. ⋯ Mentor-guided SDL stimulated surgical residents to practice with greater frequency. This repeated deliberate practice led to significantly improved MIS skills without significantly increasing the need for faculty-led instruction. Some residents preferred more discrete goal setting and increased mentor guidance.
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Traditional education consists of didactics and book learning. Recently, technology has been integrated into graduate medical education, primarily in the form of simulation. The primary aim of this study was to investigate if a novel smartphone application using technology to engage learners would improve participation in an educational activity when compared with a daily e-mail format and how this use translated to performance on standardized testing. ⋯ Technology can be used to actively engage residents. Deployment of this novel App improved participation over a daily question-answer e-mail format, and answers correlated with standardized test performance. The effect of the App on overall education is unclear, and a multi-institutional study has been initiated.