Can interview prior to laparoscopic simulator training predict a trainee's skills?
BACKGROUND
Our institute started laparoscopic simulator training for medical students in 2006. During the training, we observed considerable interindividual differences in laparoscopic skills among those students. This study aimed to investigate the predictive factors that affect laparoscopic skill by assessing the students' training results data.


METHODS
Forty-three, fifth-year medical students were asked several questions and were divided into 2 groups depending on their answers. The participants performed an object-positioning module on a ProMIS simulator (Haptica, Inc., Dublin, Ireland). Execution time, instrument path length, and economy of movement for each trial were recorded on ProMIS. Comparisons of mean performance measures between the 2 groups were made using a Mann-Whitney U test.


RESULTS
Interest about laparoscopic surgery and accomplishment in playing piano did not affect the skillfulness significantly. The students who had an interest in television (TV) games completed the task in less time (p = 0.046) and had a shorter left instrument path length (p = 0.012). The students who thought themselves manually dexterous completed the task in less time (p = 0.008). The students who were confident about driving completed the task in less time (p = 0.0247).


CONCLUSIONS
In our interview, the factors that had a relationship to laparoscopic skills were favorableness to TV games, manual dexterity, and confidence about driving. These results were expected because TV games and driving a car require the same abilities as laparoscopic surgery. Psychomotor, perceptual, or visuospatial ability are essential for good performance. In conclusion, our study suggests that the interview can be an effective measure to examine the aptitude of medical students without the use of a simulator.
Nomura
Tsutomu
T
Department of Surgery, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. nomura-t@nms.ac.jp
Miyashita
Masao
M
Shrestha
Suman
S
Makino
Hiroshi
H
Nakamura
Yoshiharu
Y
Aso
Ryouko
R
Yoshimura
Akinobu
A
Shimura
Toshiro
T
Akira
Shigeo
S
Tajiri
Takashi
T
D002983:Clinical Competence; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008297:Male; D008348:Manikins; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000145:classification; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult