An Educational Module to Teach Interprofessional Learner Feedback Skills for Trauma Simulation Events.

BACKGROUND: Peer feedback, or feedback given by a learner to another learner, is an important active learning strategy. Hierarchy and stereotypes may affect interprofessional (IP) learner-to-learner feedback. The aim was to assess the efficacy of an educational module for IP learners in delivering effective feedback during trauma simulations. METHODS: Multiple simulation events designed to improve teamwork and leadership skills during trauma simulations included IP learners (residents and nurses). Participants completed a pre-course educational module on IP peer feedback. The Trauma Team Competence Assessment-24 tool structured feedback. Learners completed pre/post-assessments utilizing IP Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey (ICCAS). RESULTS: Twenty-five learners participated in the trauma simulations (13 general surgery and 5 emergency residents, 3 medical students, 4 nurses). The majority of learners had either not received any previous training in how to effectively deliver peer feedback (40%) or had engaged in self-directed learning only (24%). Most learners (64%) had delivered peer feedback less than ten times. Learner knowledge and confidence in delivering feedback to fellow IP learners improved after simulations. All learners felt the feedback received was useful to their daily practice (68% agree, 32% strongly agree). All participants agreed that the simulation achieved each of the ICCAS competencies. CONCLUSIONS: Formal education on IP peer feedback is rare. This pilot work demonstrates educational modules with a foundation in validated tools can be effective in improving learner knowledge and confidence in the process. Engaging in IP peer feedback may also serve to flatten hierarchies that can challenge effective interprofessional teamwork.

The Current Evidence for Defining and Assessing Effectiveness of Surgical Educators: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Surgical educator effectiveness is valued but lacks an operational definition. Clearly defining attributes consistent with effective surgical educators allows for the development of professional activities directed to nurture these qualities. Our aim was to identify the literature defining qualities of an effective surgical educator, and tools to measure effectiveness. METHODS: We searched PubMed, Medline, Scopus and Academic Search Complete for English language articles from 1 July 2009-1 July 2019. Two reviewers screened all abstracts for relevance and read full text of selected articles to identify included studies. Inclusion criteria were description/definition of an effective surgical educator or description of assessment/measurement of effectiveness in surgical educators. Data extracted included: study design, participants, definition/description of qualities of an effective surgical educator, qualitative or quantitative methods to assess surgical educators. RESULTS: Initial search identified 8086 articles. Of these, 2357 articles were excluded as duplicates and 5729 abstracts screened with 5638 excluded due to irrelevance. Full text review was performed for 91 articles to assess eligibility, 23 met inclusion criteria. The majority (74%) did not clearly define an effective surgical educator. Themes from six studies that determined important qualities include: communication, leadership skills, professionalism, respect, positive learning climate, and brief-intraoperative teaching-debrief model. One validated assessment tool was identified. CONCLUSIONS: There is little published work defining or assessing effective surgical educators. Establishment of a positive learning climate and excellent communication skills continue to be important qualities that define surgical educator effectiveness.

Task Deconstruction of Colonic Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (cESD): An Expert Consensus.

BACKGROUND: Slow adoption of colonic ESD (cESD) in the US is multifactorial due to: lack of clinical training construct (e.g., gastric ESD in Japan), complication risks, and technical difficulty. More than 28,000 patients/year undergo colonic resection for benign lesions that could be managed effectively with cESD. Selected patients could avoid surgery if procedural adoption of cESD increased due to more accessible training. Current US cESD training is scarce, and existing programs are piecemeal. There is a need to develop an effective national training program for practicing endoscopists. A prerequisite to training development is a comprehensive task list delineating procedural steps. The aim of this work was to describe an evidence-based method of deconstructing cESD into the essential steps to provide a task list to guide teaching and assessment. METHODS: Subject-matter experts (SMEs) performed a literature review to create an initial procedural step list. Eleven clinical cESD SMEs and four educational SMEs formed a 'cESD Working Group' to develop consensus regarding steps. Through a two-stage modified Delphi process, a consensus on a comprehensive standard cESD deconstructed task list was reached. The aim was to standardize cESD teaching to efficiently bring a novice to safe performance. RESULTS: A literature review identified eight initial cESD steps. First-round Delphi consensus was gained on seven steps. Semi-structured focus group discussions resulted in consensus on a modified version of 7 of the initial steps, with addition of two steps. Consensus on procedural actions needed to perform each step was achieved after the hands-on laboratory. The final result was a ten-step deconstructed task list for standard cESD. CONCLUSION: The development of a standardized cESD procedural task list provides a foundation to safely and efficiently teach cESD to practicing endoscopists. This list can be used to develop a training pathway to increase procedural adoption. Selected patients currently undergoing colonic resections could benefit from increased adoption of cESD.

National ABSITE Preparation Practices: A Survey of General Surgery Residency Program Directors.

OBJECTIVE: The American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE) was designed as a low-stakes, medical knowledge examination for US general surgery residency programs. However, in practice, this exam has been utilized for higher stakes purposes, such as resident promotion or remediation, and fellowship selection. Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of ABSITE preparation resources, but best practices for ABSITE preparation and national preparatory habits are currently unknown. The aim of this work was to determine current residency programs' strategies for ABSITE preparation. DESIGN: We distributed an electronic survey to program directors or program coordinators of US general surgery programs asking them to anonymously report program ABSITE educational practices and ABSITE scores. We analyzed the proportion of responses using descriptive statistics and compared the effect of various strategies using the Mann-Whitney testing for nonparametric data. An average ABSITE percentile score was calculated for each residency based on program self-reported scores. SETTING: Association of Program Directors (APDS) Listserv PARTICIPANTS: General surgery residency programs participating at the time of distribution (278). RESULTS: Response rate was 24% (66/278); 41 programs (62.1%) identified as university-affiliated, and 25 (37.9%) were community-based. Median intern class size was 8 (range: 3-14), including preliminary interns. Average ABSITE percentile score was 52.8% (range 36.9%-67.6%). There were no significant differences in ABSITE scores based on affiliation or program size. Educational resources utilized for ABSITE preparation included SCORE (89.3%), Q-banks (50%), and surgical textbooks (25.8%). The majority (56.1%) of programs reported using a year-long curriculum for ABSITE preparation, and 66.6% used a time-limited curriculum completed in the months immediately prior to ABSITE. Most programs reported that ABSITE scores were a low priority (63.6%) or not a priority (13.6%). The existence of a year-long curriculum for ABSITE was positively correlated with score as compared to programs without a year-long curricula (53.9% vs 48.5%, p <0.01). Programs using a time-limited curriculum demonstrated lower scores as compared to programs without time-limited curricula (51.3% v 56.1%, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: General surgery programs use a variety of strategies to prepare residents for the ABSITE. Despite reporting that they utilize ABSITE scores for a variety of high stakes purposes including evaluation for promotion and as a predictor of the preparedness for the ABS QE, many programs reported that they consider ABSITE scores as a low priority. A year-long focused curriculum was the only strategy correlated with increased scores, which may reflect the value of encouraging consistent studying and spaced repetition. Additional work is needed to guide programs in optimal utilization of ABSITE scores for remediation and resident evaluation, as well as understanding how ABSITE preparatory strategies correlate with clinical performance.

Association of Residency Applicants' Hobbies and Subsequent Technical Proficiency Ratings as General Surgery Chief Residents: A Multi-Institutional Study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether participation in certain hobbies (e.g., participation in sports, playing musical instruments, or other hobbies requiring fine motor skills), preresidency, are associated with higher technical skills ratings at the time of residency graduation. DESIGN: Faculty members from 14 general surgery residency programs scored individual graduates from 2017 to 2020 on their technical skills using a 5-point Likert scale. Hobbies for these residents were collected from their Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) data. A single reviewer classified each ERAS hobby into predefined categories including musical instruments, sports requiring hand-eye coordination, team sports, and activities necessitating hand-eye coordination. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated for the relationship between each category of hobby-as well as the total number of hobbies in each category-and the outcome of surgical faculty ratings of residents' technical surgical skills during their last year of residency. A proportional odds model including the above predictive variables was also fit to the data. SETTING: Fourteen general surgery residency programs. PARTICIPANTS: General surgery residency graduates from 14 different programs from 2017 to 2020. RESULTS: There were 296 residents across 14 institutions. The average ranking of residents' technical skills was 3.24 (SD 1.1). A total of 40% of residents played sports involving hand-eye coordination, 31% played team sports, 28% participated in nonsport hobbies that require eye-hand coordination, and 20% played musical instruments. Correlation coefficients were not statistically significant for any of the categories. In the proportional odds model, none of the variables were associated with statistically significant increased odds of a higher technical skills rating. CONCLUSIONS: There was no correlation between general surgery chief residents' technical skills as rated by faculty, and self-reported pre-residency hobbies on the ERAS application. These findings suggest such hobbies prior to residency are unlikely to predict future technical skills prowess.

Simulation training to retool practicing orthopedic surgeons is rare.

Purpose: Modern surgical practice is continuously changing as technology develops. New techniques are often implemented after a surgeon has made the transition to independent clinical practice. There is therefore a need to 'retool' technical skills. Additionally, practicing surgeons must maintain and develop skills such as leadership, communication, critical thinking, teaching, and mentoring. Our aim was to perform a scoping review to assess the current status of simulation education for practicing Orthopedic Surgeons (OS). Methods: A 10 year search of PubMed, ERIC, and Web of Science was performed with a medical librarian. Controlled vocabulary Medical Subject Headings terms and natural language were developed with subject matter experts describing simulation, training and OS. Two trained reviewers evaluated all abstracts for inclusion. Exclusion criteria were articles that did not assess simulation education involving practicing OS. Data were extracted from the included full text articles by two reviewers: details of study design, type of participants, type of simulation and role of OS in the educational event. Results: Initial search identified 1824 articles of which 443 were duplicates, and 1381 articles were further screened. Of these, 1155 were excluded, 226 full text articles were assessed for eligibility and 80 included in analysis. Most were published in the last 6 years and from the United States. The majority (99%) described technical skill simulations (arthroscopy 56%, screw placement 23%, ligament reconstruction 19%). OS were rarely the only learners with 91% studies also having residents participate. OS were the targeted learner in 6% studies. OS provided content validity for 15 (19%) and construct validity in 59 (74%) studies. Conclusions: Simulation training to educate practicing OS is rare. OS are often used to validate work rather than being the center of an educational endeavor. A refocusing is needed to provide adequate training for practicing surgeons to retool skills as new techniques become available.

Current status of virtual reality simulation education for orthopedic residents: the need for a change in focus.

Introduction: Advances in technology are changing surgical education. Simulation provides an important adjunct to operative experience. This pedagogy has arguably become more important in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, with resultant reduction in operative exposure for trainees. Virtual reality (VR) simulators may provide significant contribution to experiential learning; however, much of the investigative focus to date has, correctly, been on establishing validity evidence for these constructs. The aim of this work was to perform a scoping review to assess the current status of VR simulation education to determine curricular development efforts for orthopedic residents. Methods: With a trained medical librarian, searches of PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science were conducted for all articles in the last 10 years (September 2011-September 2021). Controlled vocabulary Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms and natural language developed with subject matter experts describing virtual reality or VR simulation and orthopedic training were used. Two trained reviewers evaluated all abstracts for inclusion. Exclusion criteria were all articles that did not assess VR simulation education involving orthopedic residents. Data were extracted from the included full-text articles including: study design, type of participants, type of VR simulation, simulated orthopedic skill, type of educational event, learner assessment including Kirkpatrick's level, assessment of quality using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI), and level of effectiveness (LoE). Results: Initial search identified 1,394 articles, of which 61 were included in the final qualitative synthesis. The majority (54%) were published in 2019- 2021, 49% in Europe. The commonest VR simulator was ArthroS (23%) and the commonest simulated skill was knee arthroscopy (33%). The majority of studies (70%) focused on simulator validation. Twenty-three studies described an educational module or curriculum, and of the 21 (34%) educational modules, 43% were one-off events. Most modules (18/21, 86%) assessed learners at Kirkpatrick level 2. With regard to methodological quality, 44% of studies had MERSQI 11.5-15 and 89% of studies had LoE of 2. Two studies had LoE of 3. Conclusion: Current literature pertaining to VR training for orthopedic residents is focused on establishing validity and rarely forms part of a curriculum. Where the focus is education, the majority are discrete educational modules and do not teach a comprehensive amalgam of orthopedic skills. This suggests focus is needed to embed VR simulation training within formal curricula efforts guided by the work of Kern, and assess the efficacy of these against patient outcomes.

Adapting to Major Disruptions to the Learning Environment: Strategies and Lessons Learnt During a Global Pandemic.

Dealing with rapid, unanticipated disruptions to established learning environments are challenging. There are a number of situations that may require this including natural disasters such as weather disturbance, viral pandemics, or political unrest and violence. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic provided medical educators with this challenge and enabled valuable lessons to be learnt. These can be utilized to prepare for other occurrences in which disruptions must be faced and high-quality education delivered. Focus should be placed both on successful transition of learning events to a new modality appropriate to the emerging climate and on reliably assessing efficacy of these new educational strategies with identification of those best suited to the new environment. We present a framework, based on local lessons learnt, by which the challenges faced during an educational disruption can be addressed, and describe methods to determine which changes are most effective and should be durable.

Template for a program tailored ACS/APDS phase 1 curriculum: From needs assessment to implementation.

BACKGROUND: The Phase 1 ACS/APDS skills curriculum standardizes intern training. Despite this, institutional implementation varies and is nationally low. We aimed to use Kern's six-steps to tailor this to our program, providing a framework to improve implementation. METHODS: Problem identification and general needs assessment were performed. Targeted needs assessment (TNA) of incoming interns ('interns'), current residents, and attendings determined perceived importance of skills and intern's previous experience and confidence. Educational strategies were developed. Learner knowledge was assessed before and after modules, deficiencies identified enabled employment of active learning strategies. Modular and curricular evaluations were completed. RESULTS: TNA determined all interns had been taught knot tying and suturing, and were most confident with suturing, knot tying, and urethral catheterization. Educational strategies included simulation and lectures. Evaluations demonstrated improvement in test scores (pre-v post-) and skills confidence on curricula completion. CONCLUSION: Our framework utilizes institutional resources and expertise while focusing on determining existing knowledge, skill, and technical deficiencies of learners. This approach demonstrated improvement in knowledge and confidence, and could improve implementation rates of the Phase 1 curriculum.

Surgical Residents' Perception of Multi-Specialty Learning.

OBJECTIVE: Perceptions are important and can affect efficacy of trainer-trainee interactions. Inherent bias toward other specialties may influence the perceived benefit of a multi-specialty learning environment. The aim of this work was to determine surgical resident perceptions regarding the utility of learning from faculty and with learners from other surgical specialties. DESIGN: We measured surgical residents' perceptions before and after a multi-specialty robotic simulation event. Pre- and post-activity surveys were administered electronically to all residents determining previous experience with robotic surgery, perceptions of learning from faculty in different surgical sub-specialties, and of learning from and with residents in other surgical specialties. SETTING: Robotic simulation laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: General surgery (GS), Obstetrics and gynecology (OBG), and Urology (URO) residents in one academic healthcare program. RESULTS: Prior to the simulation, OBG and URO residents perceived highest utility in learning from faculty within their own specialty. While OBG residents reported high pre-activity agreement that learning from other faculty was useful, more than 50% of GS and URO residents were neutral or disagreed that learning from OBG faculty was useful. Pre-activity, all specialties perceived highest value in learning from and about residents of their own specialty. Following the educational event, all specialties reported increased agreement that learning from faculty of different specialties had utility. Following the simulation, the cohort reported the multi-specialty learning environment improved their knowledge and confidence in robotic surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Participation in a multi-specialty educational event can improve perceptions of surgical residents regarding the utility of being taught by faculty in different specialties. Resident opinion of the benefits of learning with and about learners from other specialties can also be improved. Multi-specialty learning environments are important in developing communities of practice to allow socialization and promotion of positive identity development in our surgical residents, which may ultimately benefit efficacy of learning and patient care.

The community of inquiry framework for virtual team-to-team debriefings during interprofessional trauma simulations.

Purpose: Psychological safety is key to effective debriefing and learning. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated rapid adaption of simulation events to virtual/hybrid platforms. We sought to determine the effect of utilizing the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI) for debriefing virtually connecting interprofessional learner teams on the psychological safety experienced during trauma simulations. Methods: General surgery (GSR), emergency medicine (EMR) residents, trauma nurses/nurse practitioners and medical students participated in multiple simulation events designed to improve teamwork and leadership skills. Pre-course materials were provided before the event for learners to prepare. Briefings delineating expectations emphasized importance of and strategies employed to achieve psychological safety. Four unique clinical scenarios were run for each simulation event, with a debrief after each scenario. Virtual team-to-team debriefings were structured using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) conceptual framework. All learners completed pre-/post-assessments utilizing Inter-professional Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey (ICCAS). Results: Twenty-five learners participated (13 GSR, 5 EMR, 3 medical students, 2 trauma APRNs and 2 trauma RNs). Learner assessment found 88% (22) "agreed"/"strongly agreed" that virtual team-to-team debriefing had social, cognitive and educator presence per the CoI domains. However, one GSR and two nurse learners "strongly disagreed" with these statements. Most learners felt the debriefing was effective and safe. All participants "strongly agreed"/"agreed" the simulation achieved ICCAS competencies. Conclusions: Debriefings utilizing a virtual platform are challenging with multiple barriers to ensuring psychological safety and efficacy. By structuring debriefings using the CoI framework we demonstrate they can be effective for most learners. However, educators should recognize the implications of social identity theory, particularly the effects of hierarchy, on comfort level of learners. Developing strategies to optimize virtual simulation learning environments is essential as this valuable pedagogy persists during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Characteristics Associated With Outstanding General Surgery Residency Graduate Performance, as Rated by Surgical Educators.

Importance: Characteristics of outstanding graduating surgical residents are currently undefined. Identifying these qualities may be important in guiding resident selection and resident education. Objective: To determine characteristics that are most strongly associated with being rated as an outstanding graduating surgical resident. Design, Setting, and Participants: The multi-institutional study had 3 phases. First, an expert panel developed a list of characteristics embodied by top graduating surgical residents. Second, groups of faculty from 14 US general-surgery residency programs ranked 2017 through 2020 graduates into quartiles of overall performance. Third, faculty evaluated their graduates on each characteristic using a 5-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed using Spearman rank-order correlation to identify which individual characteristics were associated with overall graduate performance. A least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) ordinal regression was performed to select a parsimonious model to predict the outcome of overall performance rating from individual characteristic scores. Main Outcome and Measures: Surgical educators' rankings of general surgery residency graduates' overall performance. Results: Fifty faculty from 14 US residency programs with a median of 13 (range, 5-30) years of surgical education experience evaluated 297 general surgery residency graduates. Surgical educators identified 21 characteristics that they believed outstanding graduating surgical residents possessed. Two hundred ninety-seven surgical residency graduates were evaluated. Higher scores in every characteristic correlated with better overall performance. Characteristics most strongly associated with higher overall performance scores were surgical judgment (r = 0.728; P < .001), leadership (r = 0.726; P < .001), postoperative clinical skills (r = 0.715; P < .001), and preoperative clinical skills (r = 0.707; P < .001). The remainder of the characteristics were moderately associated with overall performance. The LASSO regression model identified 3 characteristics from which overall resident performance could be accurately predicted without measuring other qualities: surgical judgment (odds ratio [OR] per 1 level of 5-level Likert scale OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.03-1.51), leadership (OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.06-1.48), and medical knowledge (OR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.01-1.33). Conclusions and Relevance: All individual characteristics identified by surgical educators as being qualities of outstanding graduating surgical residents were positively associated with overall graduate performance. Surgical judgment and leadership skills had the strongest individual associations. Assessment of only 3 qualities (surgical judgment, leadership, and medical knowledge) were required to predict overall resident performance ratings. These findings highlight the importance of developing specific surgical judgment and leadership skills curricula and assessments during surgical residency.

Public Perceptions of General Surgery Residency Training.

OBJECTIVE: Patients are integral to surgical training. Understanding our patients' perceptions of surgical training, resident involvement and autonomy is crucial to optimizing surgical education and thus patient care. In the modern, connected world many factors extrinsic to a patient's experience of healthcare may influence their opinion of our training systems (i.e., social media, television shows, and internet searches). The purpose of this article is to contextualize the literature investigating public perceptions of general surgery training to allow us to effect patient education initiatives to optimize both surgical training and patient safety. DESIGN: This is a perspective including a literature review summarizing the current knowledge of public perceptions of general surgery training. CONCLUSIONS: Little is published regarding patient and public perceptions of general surgery residency training and the role of residents within this. Current literature demonstrates that the majority of patients are willing to have residents participate in their care. Patients' attitude toward resident involvement in their operation is improved by utilizing educational materials and by ensuring a supervising attending is present within the operating room. These observations, coupled with future work to delve deeper into factors affecting public perceptions of surgical training and resident involvement within this, can guide strategies to improve surgical education.

How learning preferences and teaching styles influence effectiveness of surgical educators.

BACKGROUND: Effective surgical educators have specific attributes and learner-relationships. Our aim was to determine how intrinsic learning preferences and teaching styles affect surgical educator effectiveness. METHODS: We determined i) learning preferences ii) teaching styles and iii) self-assessment of teaching skills for all general surgery attendings. All general surgical residents in our program completed teaching evaluations of attendings. RESULTS: Multimodal was the most common learning preference (20/28). Although the multimodal learning preference appears to be associated with more effective educators than kinesthetic learning preferences, the difference was not statistically significant (80.0% versus 66.7%, p = 0.43). Attendings with Teaching Style 5 were more likely to have a lower "professional attitude towards residents" score on SETQ assessment by residents (OR 0.33 (0.11, 0.96), p = 0.04). Attendings rated their own "communication of goals" (p < 0.001), "evaluation of residents" (p = 0.04) and "overall teaching performance" (p = 0.01) per STEQ domains as significantly lower than the resident's assessment of these cofactors. CONCLUSION: Identification of factors intrinsic to surgical educators with high effectiveness is important for faculty development. Completion of a teaching style self-assessment by attendings could improve effectiveness.

Independent Operating by General Surgery Residents: An ACS-NSQIP Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Surgical resident autonomy during training is paramount to independent practice. We sought to determine prevalence of general surgery resident autonomy for surgeries commonly performed on emergency general surgery services and identify trends with time. DESIGN: We queried ACS-NSQIP for patients undergoing one of 7 emergency general surgery operations. We evaluated trends in independent operating (defined as a resident operating alone, without attending having scrubbed) over the study period. Other outcomes of interest: operative time, 30-day-mortality and complications. SETTING: The ACS-NSQIP database. PARTICIPANTS: Patients undergoing one of 7 emergency general surgery operations. RESULTS: Data regarding resident involvement was only available for the years 2005-2010. 90,790 operations were performed, 922 (1%) by residents operating independently. Appendectomy accounted for 61% independent cases. Independent resident operating was associated with a longer operative time (65 versus 58 minutes, p < 0.001), but lower risk of bleeding requiring transfusion (p < 0.001) and progressive renal insufficiency (p = 0.02). Independent operating was not associated with increased risk of complications/mortality. CONCLUSION: Independent resident operating is rare, even with increasing attention to its importance, and is not associated with increased complications or mortality. National data on this subject is old and not currently collected. There is need for a national registry on resident involvement to understand the current effect of independent operating on outcomes.

Public perceptions of general surgery resident training and assessment.

BACKGROUND: Patients play a crucial role in surgical training, but little is known about the public's knowledge of general surgery training structure or opinion of resident assessment. Our aim was to evaluate the public's knowledge of general surgery training and assessment processes. METHODS: We administered an anonymous, electronic survey to US adult panelists using SurveyGizmo. We used Dillman's Tailored Design Method to optimize response rate. Questions pertained to demographics, knowledge of general surgery training structure, and opinions regarding resident assessment. Outcome measures included public knowledge of the structure of general surgery residency and the perceptions of resident assessment. Univariate and multivariate statistics were used as appropriate. RESULTS: Survey response rate was 93% (2005 of 2148). Respondents had nationally representative demographics. Most respondents had health insurance (87%). Sixty-one percent of respondents believed that 100% of hospitals trained residents. Age <40 years, Black race (odds ratio 1.48 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11-1.96]), working in a hospital/health care field (odds ratio 1.49 [95% CI 1.12-1.97]), and having a family member/close acquaintance working in a hospital/health care field (odds ratio 1.53 [95% CI .20-1.94]) were associated with this belief. There was a preference to obtain online information about medical training (30% television [TV] shows, 24% Internet searches, 5% social media). Eighty percent of respondents felt that resident self-assessment and patient assessment of residents was "important" or "essential" when considering readiness for independent practice. CONCLUSION: The US public has limited knowledge of general surgery training and competency assessment. Public educational strategies may help inform patients about the structure of training and assessment of trainees to improve engagement of these important stakeholders in surgical training.

Public Perception of General Surgery Resident Autonomy and Supervision.

BACKGROUND: Despite patients being important stakeholders in surgical training, little is known about the public's perception of trainee participation in surgical care. This study evaluates the public's perception of surgical resident autonomy and supervision. STUDY DESIGN: An anonymous electronic survey was sent to adult panelists older than 18 years in the US using SurveyGizmo. The design of the survey used Dillman's Tailored Design Method to optimize response rate. Participants completed surveys including demographic characteristics and perceptions toward general surgery resident autonomy. Univariable and multivariable analyses were used as appropriate. RESULTS: Survey response rate was 93% (2,005 of 2,148). Demographic characteristics including age, gender, race or ethnicity, and highest level of education were nationally representative. Most respondents (87%) had health insurance. On multivariable logistic regression analysis, factors associated with participants who would never allow a resident to perform any portion of the operation include: female gender (odds ratio [OR] 1.58; 95% CI, 1.28 to 1.95), no health insurance (OR 1.38; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.84), Black race (OR 1.82; 95% CI, 1.38 to 2.41), and Hispanic ethnicity (OR 1.49; 95% CI, 1.03 to 2.15). Participants who were younger than 50 years (OR 1.57; 95% CI, 1.24 to 1.98), male (OR 1.90; 95% CI, 1.56 to 2.32), of Black race (OR 1.45; 95% CI, 0.10 to 1.91), Hispanic ethnicity (OR 1.49; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.11), working in healthcare (OR 2.18; 95% CI, 1.67 to 2.86), or insured (OR 1.46; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.99) were more likely to believe that resident involvement increases complications. CONCLUSIONS: Among survey participants broadly representing the US population, resident participation in operations is not universally accepted. Public perception of surgical resident autonomy and supervision is important, as GME continues to evolve to address readiness for independent practice.