Resident training experience with robotic assisted transabdominal preperitoneal inguinal hernia repair.

BACKGROUND: General surgery is the fastest growing field in the adoption of robotic assisted laparoscopic surgery. Here, we present the results of one institution's experience in training surgical residents in robotic assisted transabdominal preperitoneal inguinal hernia repairs. METHODS: Data were prospectively collected on patients undergoing robotic assisted laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair with residents. Data points included patient age, gender, complications, hernia difficulty, resident technical competency as measured by GEARS, Zwisch scores, operative time, and the number of robotic console cases reported by residents as primary surgeon. RESULTS: Residents who performed >30 robotic cases had significantly higher mean modified GEARS scores (p ≤ .002). Residents who completed 10 or fewer robotic cases achieved significantly lower mean modified GEARS and Zwisch scores than those who completed 11 or more (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Resident competency and autonomy improve with increasing total robotic case load. Attending surgeons grant more autonomy to residents with higher competency scores.

Surgical Inpatient's Attitudes Toward Resident Participation: All About Expectations.

OBJECTIVE: Determine whether an educational video can improve surgical inpatients' attitudes toward resident participation in their care. METHODS: Patients admitted to the Trauma/Emergency General Surgery Service at University Hospital (San Antonio, Texas) were randomly divided into control and intervention groups. Patients in the intervention group viewed a short educational video about the role and responsibilities of medical students, residents, and attending surgeons. All patients then completed a previously published survey. RESULTS: A total of 140 patients responded to the survey (control = 81 and intervention = 59 patients). Overall, 86.4% of patients were welcoming of resident participation. Patients who were expecting residents to be involved in their care had attitudes that are more favorable on almost all survey questions regardless of their study condition. However, patients in the intervention group who expected resident involvement in their care had more favorable attitudes about senior residents (postgraduate year 3-5) assisting in routine or complicated surgery than those in the control group who were expecting resident involvement (both p ≤ 0.001). This same group of patients also had more favorable attitudes about surgical outcomes and overall surgical health when residents are involved (p = 0.004, p = 0.001, respectively). Most patients (79%) said they had no residents previously involved in their care, or they were unsure if residents were previously involved. CONCLUSIONS: Patient expectation of resident involvement is one of the most important factors influencing perceptions of inpatients about resident participation in surgery. Our goal should be early and frequent discussion with patients about resident involvement in order to foster an atmosphere of trust, including full transparency regarding resident involvement in surgical procedures. An educational video may help introduce the roles of trainees and attending surgeons but should not be used in lieu of direct discussion with patients.

Surgery Program Director Turnover Correlates With Residency Graduate Failure on American Board of Surgery Examinations in Civilian Residency Programs.

PURPOSE: The Review Committee for Surgery requires a minimum program director (PD) tenure of 6 years. The impact of PD turnover on the performance of program graduates is unknown. We hypothesize that (1) the majority of PDs step down before 6-year tenure and (2) higher PD turnover is associated with higher failure rate on American Board of Surgery (ABS) examinations. METHODS: Start and stop dates of all surgery PDs between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2017 were obtained for civilian surgery programs. A Kaplan-Meier curve of PD "survival" was constructed. Programs were divided into High Turnover (HT; ≥4 PD changes, n = 33) and Low Turnover (LT; ≤3 PD changes, n = 191) groups. Five-year (2013-2017) ABS pass rates were also obtained. Pass rates and compliance with current standards were compared between groups. RESULTS: Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that 40% of PDs do not comply with ACGME policy and serve <6 years. HT programs had lower mean pass rates on ABS certifying exam than LT programs (76% vs 83%, p < 0.01), but not qualifying exam (88% vs 88%). HT programs are less likely to meet the current 65% pass rate standard (82% vs 93%, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: (1) An estimated 40% of general surgery PDs had tenures of <6 years. (2) Greater PD turnover is associated with lower ABS pass rates among general surgery graduates.

Failure on the American Board of Surgery Examinations of General Surgery Residency Graduates Correlates Positively with States' Malpractice Risk.

It has been suggested that in environments where there is greater fear of litigation, resident autonomy and education is compromised. Our aim was to examine failure rates on American Board of Surgery (ABS) examinations in comparison with medical malpractice payments in 47 US states/territories that have general surgery residency programs. We hypothesized higher ABS examination failure rates for general surgery residents who graduate from residencies in states with higher malpractice risk. We conducted a retrospective review of five-year (2010-2014) pass rates of first-time examinees of the ABS examinations. States' malpractice data were adjusted based on population. ABS examinations failure rates for programs in states with above and below median malpractice payments per capita were 31 and 24 per cent (P < 0.01) respectively. This difference was seen in university and independent programs regardless of size. Pearson correlation confirmed a significant positive correlation between board failure rates and malpractice payments per capita for Qualifying Examination (P < 0.02), Certifying Examination (P < 0.02), and Qualifying and Certifying combined index (P < 0.01). Malpractice risk correlates positively with graduates' failure rates on ABS examinations regardless of program size or type. We encourage further examination of training environments and their relationship to surgical residency graduate performance.

Immediate Auditory Feedback is Superior to Other Types of Feedback for Basic Surgical Skills Acquisition.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the effect of timing and type of feedback on medical students' knot-tying performance using visual versus auditory and immediate versus delayed feedback. We hypothesized that participants who received immediate auditory feedback would outperform those who received delayed and visual feedback. METHODS: Sixty-nine first- and second-year medical students were taught to tie 2-handed knots. All participants completed 3 pretest knot-tying trials without feedback. Participants were instructed to tie a knot sufficiently tight to stop the "blood" flow while minimizing the amount of force applied to the vessel. Task completion time was not a criterion. Participants were stratified and randomly assigned to 5 experimental groups based on type (auditory versus visual) and timing (immediate versus delayed) of feedback. The control group did not receive feedback. All groups trained to proficiency. Participants completed 3 posttest trials without feedback. RESULTS: There were fewer trials with leak (p < 0.01) and less force applied (p < 0.01) on the posttest compared to the pretest, regardless of study group. The immediate auditory feedback group required fewer trials to achieve proficiency than each of the other groups (p < 0.01) and had fewer leaks than the control, delayed auditory, and delayed visual groups (p < 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In a surgical force feedback simulation model, immediate auditory feedback resulted in fewer training trials to reach proficiency and fewer leaks compared to visual and delayed forms of feedback.

The Effect of Patient Education on the Perceptions of Resident Participation in Surgical Care.

OBJECTIVE: To decipher if patient attitudes toward resident participation in their surgical care can be improved with patient education regarding resident roles, education, and responsibilities. DESIGN: An anonymous questionnaire was created and distributed in outpatient surgery clinics that had residents involved with patient care. In total, 3 groups of patients were surveyed, a control group and 2 intervention groups. Each intervention group was given an informational pamphlet explaining the role, education, and responsibilities of residents. The first pamphlet used an analogy-based explanation. The second pamphlet used literature citations and statistics. SETTING: Keesler Medical Center, Keesler AFB, MS. University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 454 responses were collected and analyzed-211 in the control group, 118 in the analogy pamphlet group, and 125 in the statistics pamphlet group. RESULTS: Patients had favorable views of residents assisting with their surgical procedures, and the majority felt that outcomes were the same or better regardless of whether they read an informational pamphlet. Of all the patients surveyed, 80% agreed or strongly agreed that they expect to be asked permission for residents to be involved in their care. Further, 52% of patients in the control group agreed or strongly agreed to a fifth-year surgery resident operating on them independently for routine procedures compared to 62% and 65% of the patients who read the analogy pamphlet and statistics pamphlet, respectively (p = 0.05). When we combined the 2 intervention groups compared to the control group, this significant difference persisted (p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Most patients welcome resident participation in their surgical care, but they expect to be asked permission for resident involvement. Patient education using an information pamphlet describing resident roles, education, and responsibilities improved patient willingness to allow a chief resident to operate independently.

The American Board of Surgery examinations: how are the Southwestern Surgical Congress programs performing compared to the rest of the United States?

BACKGROUND: Our aim was to study pass rates of the American Board of Surgery (ABS) examinations for examinees from programs in the Southwestern Surgical Congress (SWSC) compared with the rest of the United States (Non-SWSC). METHODS: A retrospective review of pass rates of ABS Qualifying Examination (QE), Certifying Examination (CE), and QE/CE index from 2005 to 2015 was conducted. RESULTS: From 2005 to 2010, SWSC outperformed Non-SWSC in QE (88% vs 85%, P < .02), CE (86% vs 82%, P < .01), and QE/CE (77% vs 72%, P < .01). From 2010 to 2015, SWSC outperformed Non-SWSC in QE (91% vs 86%, P < .01) and QE/CE (77% vs 71%, P < .01) but did not achieve statistical significance in CE (83% vs 81%, P = .09). CONCLUSIONS: SWSC programs outperformed Non-SWSC across QE and CE in the early period, but only on QE in the late period. We encourage SWSC states and regional surgical societies to evaluate performance on ABS examinations and collaborate to improve surgical training.

Predicting Success of Preliminary Surgical Residents: A Multi-Institutional Study.

OBJECTIVE: A nondesignated preliminary surgery (NDPS) position encompasses 1 year of training provided by many general surgery residencies. Our aim was to assess factors predicting success and provide evidence for program directors to support career guidance to preliminary residents. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of 221 NDPS residents who entered 5 university-based institutions were identified from 2009 to 2013. Records for trainees were reviewed. We defined primary success as obtaining a categorical position in the specialty of choice and secondary success as obtaining a categorical position in any specialty immediately after finishing their NDPS training. Statistical evaluation was performed using chi-square analysis, independent t-test and logistic regression using α <0.05. RESULTS: Of the 221 NDPS residents, 217 (98%) completed postgraduate year (PGY)-1 and 65 (29%) completed PGY-2. Totally, 90 (41%) obtained categorical general surgery positions, 89 (40%) obtained categorical positions in other specialties, and 42 (19%) failed to obtain a categorical position immediately after their NDPS years. Ultimately, 139 (63%) of residents achieved primary success and 40 (18%) additional residents obtained categorical positions in specialties other than their first choice, resulting in a total of 179 (81%) of residents obtaining categorical positions. Mean United States Medical Licensing Examination step 1 and step 2 scores for those who obtained secondary success were 227 and 234 vs. 214 and 219, respectively, for those who failed to secure a categorical position (p < 0.01). United States Medical Licensing Examination step 2 score was a significant predictor of primary (p < 0.03) and secondary success (p < 0.02). Of 65 PGY-2 NDPS residents, 32 (49%) achieved primary success, and 11 (17%) others achieved secondary success for a total of 43 (66%). For PGY-2 NDPS, American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination was the only significant predictor of primary and secondary success (p < 0.02 and p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: NDPS training provides a viable and successful opportunity for at least 81% of young physicians to pursue their career goals even after an unsuccessful first match.