American journal of surgery
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Teaching technical skills is one of the most important tasks of a surgeon. This article discusses current issues in teaching and testing technical skills. For the most part, the level of technical skills cannot be predicted before a surgical resident starts a program. ⋯ A methodologic framework for skill acquisition, adapted from the educational psychology literature, is discussed. Five methods of assessing technical skills are presented. Structuring the assessment process has resulted in higher levels of reliability and improved validity.