Mental practice for laparoscopic salpingectomy

Abstract

Mental practice (MP) is a method of enhancing surgical training by rehearsal of a task without physical action. The primary objective of the study was to develop and validate a MP tool for laparoscopic salpingectomy (LS). An imagery script for LS was developed and used to facilitate a structured MP session for trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and expert gynaecologists across three teaching hospitals in the UK. A virtual platform was used for one trainee group to assess its feasibility compared to a face-to-face approach. Pre- and post-session assessments were conducted to evaluate the impact of the script on motivation, confidence, preparedness and quality of imagery and demonstrated a significant improvement in global imagery scores for both novice groups. The expert group scored significantly higher than the face-to-face novice group on all items both before and after MP, indicating construct validity. There were no significant differences demonstrated between the two novice groups, thus demonstrating the virtual platform to be a non-inferior approach – an important consideration in the current COVID era.

Graphical Abstract

Impact statement

• What is already known on this subject? Mental practice has been used most commonly in sports and music. Increasingly, it has been utilised in surgical settings and prior studies have demonstrated a positive impact on surgical performance. In gynaecology, a mental practice tool for total abdominal hysterectomy has previously been developed.

• What the results of this study add? This study adds to the growing literature on use of MP in surgical education by successfully developing and validating a mental practice technique for laparoscopic salpingectomy. Additionally, a virtual approach was tested and found to be non-inferior to the traditional face-to-face approach.

• What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? This tool can be used as a training aid for novice gynaecologists learning laparoscopic salpingectomy. Notably, use of this tool via a virtual platform is feasible and effective. Further research is required to continue to optimise the MP technique protocol and evaluate its effects on clinical practice.

Keywords:

• Education
• imagery
• surgical training
• virtual platform
• mental practice
• laparoscopic salpingectomy

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr Hammant for his assistance with audio recording for the instructional video and proofreading of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).