Advancing Equity in Assessment in the Surgical Learning Environment.

IMPORTANCE: Assessment is a fundamental part of teaching and learning that provides the basis for making inferences about the development of learners. Inequity in assessment disproportionately impacts underrepresented in medicine learners and can limit their opportunities for achievement. OBSERVATIONS: Unfortunately, inequity in assessment is prevalent in the surgical learning environment due to systemic and individual factors. The Antideficit Achievement framework can be effectively applied to address sources of inequity. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This paper explores sources of inequity in assessment in the surgical learning environment and illuminates them with a descriptive case study. Recommendations created using the Antideficit Achievement framework provide effective, practical ways to begin to advance equity in assessment in the surgical learning environment.

Faculty and Resident Perspectives on the Implementation of Entrustable Professional Activities in General Surgery Residency.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify what best practices facilitate implementation of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) into surgical training programs. DESIGN: This is a mixed methods study utilizing both survey data as well as semi-structured interviews of faculty and residents involved in the American Board of Surgery (ABS) EPA pilot study. SETTING: From 2018 to 2020, the ABS conducted a pilot that introduced five EPAs across 28 general surgery training programs. PARTICIPANTS: All faculty members and residents at the 28 pilot programs were invited to participate in the study. RESULTS: About 117 faculty members and 79 residents responded to the survey. The majority of faculty (81%) and residents (66%) felt that EPAs were useful and were a valuable addition to training. While neither group felt that EPAs were overly time consuming to complete, residents did report difficulty incorporating them into their daily workflow (44%). Semi-structured interviews found that programs that focused on faculty and resident -development and utilized frequent reminders about the importance and necessity of EPAs tended to perform better. CONCLUSIONS: EPA implementation is feasible in general surgery training programs but requires significant effort and engagement from all levels of program personnel. As EPAs are implemented by the ABS nationally a focus on resident and faculty development will be critical to success.

More Than Aligning Perception: Impact of an Educational Intervention on Medical Student Mistreatment Reporting.

BACKGROUND: Despite decades of reporting, rates of medical student mistreatment on the surgical clerkship remains a national issue. To understand whether misaligned perceptions about what constitutes mistreatment were leading to the high rates of reported mistreatment at our institution, we implemented an intervention designed to educate students about the unique challenges of the surgical environment and to build consensus around the definition of mistreatment. STUDY DESIGN: Medical students were recruited from the surgery clerkship to participate in a video vignette-based curriculum accompanied by a facilitated discussion. Participants completed a survey before and after the educational intervention to assess their understanding of mistreatment and their perceptions of the surgical learning environment. At the end of each clerkship block students who participated in the intervention, as well as students who did not participate, were asked to complete a questionnaire about their experiences during the clerkship. RESULTS: During 6 clerkship blocks, 53 students participated in the intervention (51% of the third-year student cohort). Students who participated in the intervention were more likely to report experiencing mistreatment or witnessing mistreatment during the clerkship. Students who participated in the intervention also reported experiencing neglect more frequently than students who did not participate. CONCLUSIONS: We found that using an educational intervention designed to align perceptions of what constitutes mistreatment in the surgical learning environment did not decrease rates of mistreatment reporting on the surgical clerkship at our institution. Students who participated in the intervention reported increased confidence in their ability to define and recognize mistreatment after the intervention, as well as increased comfort reporting mistreatment and turning to faculty with concerns about mistreatment.