Journal of surgical education
-
Situation awareness (SA) is a vital construct for decision making in intense, dynamic environments such as trauma resuscitation. Human patient simulation (HPS) allows for a safe environment where individuals can develop these skills. Trauma resuscitation is performed by multidisciplinary teams that are traditionally difficult to globally assess. Our objective was to create and validate a novel tool to measure SA in multidisciplinary trauma teams using a HPS--the Team Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (TSAGAT). ⋯ TSAGAT is the first valid and reliable assessment tool incorporating SA and HPS for multidisciplinary team performance in trauma resuscitation. TSAGAT could compliment or improve on current assessment methods and curricula in trauma and critical care and provides a template for team assessment in other areas of surgical education.
-
The Communication Assessment Tool (CAT) has been used and validated to assess Family and Emergency Medicine resident communication skills from the patient's perspective. However, it has not been previously reported as an outcome measure for general surgery residents. The purpose of this study is to establish initial benchmarking data for the use of the CAT as an evaluation tool in an osteopathic general surgery residency program. Results are analyzed quarterly and used by the program director to provide meaningful feedback and targeted goal setting for residents to demonstrate progressive achievement of interpersonal and communication skills with patients. ⋯ The CAT is a useful tool for measuring 1 facet of resident communication skills-the patient's perception of the physician-patient encounter. The tool provides a unique and personalized outcome measure for identifying communication strengths and improvement opportunities, allowing residents to receive specific feedback and mentoring by program directors.
-
The following statement on surgical pre-residency preparatory courses has been approved by the American Board of Surgery, the American College of Surgeons, the Association of Program Directors in Surgery, and the Association for Surgical Education: The leadership of the surgical community is actively engaged in improving the preparation of incoming residents to assume responsibility and accountability for key elements of care and stewardship. To better prepare for this transition, it is essential that all matriculants to surgery residency successfully complete a preparatory course of blended learning that specifically addresses essential components of quality care and patient safety before the start of their training. ⋯ We strongly endorse this effort and encourage medical schools to adopt this or a similar program. We stand ready to assist medical schools and medical students in implementation of this important initiative.
-
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has offered minimal guidelines for the creation and implementation of clinical competency committees (CCCs). As surgical residency programs may differ greatly in terms of size and structure, requirements that are too specific throughout the process could place some programs at a great disadvantage. ⋯ With the implementation of CCCs and the milestones project, residency programs have an opportunity to improve the overall quality of decision making regarding residents' promotion to the next training level or independent practice. CCCs will undoubtedly be confronted with numerous challenges, as they implement the milestones project and are faced with the need to make multiple changes. Therefore, implementing milestones should be viewed as a goal to be accomplished over the long term.
-
To satisfy trainees' operative competency requirements while improving feedback validity and timeliness using a mobile Web-based platform. ⋯ In contrast to CERPs, the OPRS fully satisfies the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and American Board of Surgery operative assessment requirements. The mobile Web platform provides a convenient interface, broad accessibility, automatic data compilation, and compatibility with common database and statistical software. Our mobile OPRS system encourages candid feedback dialog and generates a comprehensive review of individual and group-wide operative proficiency in real time.