Housestaff performance is improved by participation in a laparoscopic skills curriculum.
BACKGROUND
After the implementation of a laparoscopic skills curriculum, we studied two questions: (1) can skills curriculum participation improve performance and (2) can we identify housestaff who may benefit from early instruction in laparoscopic technical skills?


METHODS
We administered a six-task laparoscopic skills curriculum to postgraduate year (PGY) 2 and PGY3 surgical housestaff. Six laparoscopic tasks were divided into two groups: generalized skills and task specific skills. All participants were evaluated during a pretest and were placed in the novice group (total score less than 600) or in the intermediate skill (IS) group (total score 600 or more). Each participant had two 1-hour practice/instruction sessions and 2 weeks for independent practice. After these sessions, a posttest was administered.


RESULTS
Novices and intermediate skill participants demonstrated significant improvement in general skills and task specific skills. However, comparison of novice and IS group learners revealed that IS group learners were significantly more proficient in the performance of general skills, but the performance of task specific skills failed to demonstrate a difference between the two groups. On posttest, there was no significant difference in overall score between novices and IS participants.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall ability and performance of generalized skills by all housestaff are improved with a laparoscopic skills curriculum; however, the performance of novices improved the greatest. Task specific skills did not discriminate novices from more advanced learners. Early testing of housestaff may identify those individuals who could benefit from intervention and instruction prior to performing the laparoscopic skills in the operating room.
Powers
Thomas W
TW
Department of Surgery, Northwestern University Medical School, 201 East Huron St., Galter 10-105, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
Murayama
Kenric M
KM
Toyama
Mark
M
Murphy
Sarah
S
Denham
Ervin W
EW
Derossis
Anna M
AM
Joehl
Raymond J
RJ
D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards*; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards*; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000592:standards*