A novel approach to assess clinical competence of postgraduate year 1 surgery residents

ABSTRACT

Background: An increased demand for accountability and transparency in medicine have initiated a shift toward a more objective and standardized approach for postgraduate medical training.

Objective: To develop and evaluate an objective method to assess clinical competence of postgraduate year 1 surgery residents.

Design: Thirty-one postgraduate year 1 surgery residents, who had been trained in the Surgical School of Peking University First Hospital for one year, participated in an objective structured clinical examination as a final assessment of their clinical competence. A test station of irregular wound repair (debridement and suture) was specially designed to test the residents’ surgical integrative competence in a complex-trauma treatment procedure. A modified global rating scale, in combination with wound area measurement, was applied to evaluate residents’ surgical performance. The validity of the subjective global rating scale was evaluated by the objective measurement results from the software.

Results: The global rating scale score had no obvious correlation with the area of the removed tissue and the residual wound area after the suture. There was significant difference in the debridement time and the residual wound area between 0–3 and >3 total stitches. There were significant differences in the area of the removed tissue between 0 and 1–2 grey stitches and 0 and 3–4 grey stitches, and in the residual wound area after suture between 0 and 3–4 grey stitches and 1–2 and 3–4 grey stitches.

Conclusions: An irregular wound repair procedure could be an effective method to assess the integrative competence of surgery residents. The training for surgical thinking in the early stage of junior residents needs to be strengthened. The entire measurement process was more complex and time-consuming than expected. The possibility of measurement by simply counting the numbers of the key spots might be explored in the future.

Abbreviations: ACS/APDS American College of Surgeons/Association of Program Directors in Surgery; GRS Global rating scale; LSD-T Least significant difference-test; OSATS Objective structured assessment of technical skills; OSCE Objective structured clinical examination; PBT Proficiency based training; PGY1 Postgraduate Year 1

KEYWORDS:

• Standardized training of residents
• OSCE
• irregular wound
• debridement
• suture

Acknowledgements

None

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Peking University First Hospital’s ethics committee, and patient consent was obtained.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and material

The dataset supporting the conclusions of this article is included within the article.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the Quality Improvement Project for Resident Standardized Training granted by Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning

Notes on contributors

Xin Qi

XQ, YL, HL, and BW conceived and designed the study. XQ, LD, WZ, and QL performed the research. XQ, LD, and WZ analyzed the data. XQ, and LD contributed to new methods. XQ wrote the paper

Lian Ding

XQ, YL, HL, and BW conceived and designed the study. XQ, LD, WZ, and QL performed the research. XQ, LD, and WZ analyzed the data. XQ, and LD contributed to new methods. XQ wrote the paper

Wei Zhai

XQ, YL, HL, and BW conceived and designed the study. XQ, LD, WZ, and QL performed the research. XQ, LD, and WZ analyzed the data. XQ, and LD contributed to new methods. XQ wrote the paper

Qiang Li

XQ, YL, HL, and BW conceived and designed the study. XQ, LD, WZ, and QL performed the research. XQ, LD, and WZ analyzed the data. XQ, and LD contributed to new methods. XQ wrote the paper

Yan Li

XQ, YL, HL, and BW conceived and designed the study. XQ, LD, WZ, and QL performed the research. XQ, LD, and WZ analyzed the data. XQ, and LD contributed to new methods. XQ wrote the paper

Haichao Li

XQ, YL, HL, and BW conceived and designed the study. XQ, LD, WZ, and QL performed the research. XQ, LD, and WZ analyzed the data. XQ, and LD contributed to new methods. XQ wrote the paper

Bing Wen

XQ, YL, HL, and BW conceived and designed the study. XQ, LD, WZ, and QL performed the research. XQ, LD, and WZ analyzed the data. XQ, and LD contributed to new methods. XQ wrote the paper