["Practical course for visceral surgery in Warnemünde" 10 years on. Significance and benefits of a surgical training course].
BACKGROUND
Skill courses for surgery offer a good but cost and personnel-intensive possibility to obtain practical and theoretical knowledge by the employment of a close teacher-pupil contact of a large group of surgeons. The goal of the study presented here was to evaluate the satisfaction and benefits of the practical course for visceral surgery in Warnemünde after 10 years of course experience.


METHODS
All participants in the annual course for visceral surgery were included since 1999. During this 1-week course conventional and laparoscopic exercises are performed under direct guidance of an experienced tutor. The participants are divided into 3 groups based on their surgical experience (e.g. <3 years, 3-5 years, >5 years). All participants received a standardised questionnaire before and after successful course completion for the collection of relevant data (e.g. demography, training, surgical experience and course evaluation).


RESULTS
A total of 1,062 participants (435 female, 627 male, mean age 37 years) participated in the course. The average surgical experience of the participants was 5 years. Of the participants 489 came from a hospital of basic medical care, 499 from a hospital of maximum medical care and 74 from a university hospital. Of the participants 96% had no or only little experience with skill courses (1,020 out of 1,065) and 827 participants had no or only few possibilities for training outside of the operation room (78%). The conventional part of the course was evaluated by 77% of the participants as very good and by 50% as very good for the laparoscopic part. Only 8.3% of the participants were willing to finance the costs of the course by themselves.


CONCLUSIONS
The practical course for visceral surgery leads to a subjective success in learning. Participation in the course leads to a high satisfaction and offers a cost-intensive possibility for a standardised surgical training. But there are too few experiences with skill courses and possibilities for surgical training outside the operation room so far.
Ritz
J-P
JP
Abteilung für Allgemein-, Gefäss- und Thoraxchirurgie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12200, Berlin. joerg-peter.ritz@charite.de
Gröne
J
J
Hopt
U
U
Saeger
H D
HD
Siewert
J R
JR
Vollmar
B
B
Lauscher
J C
JC
Lehmann
K S
KS
Buhr
H J
HJ
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003479:Curriculum; D013505:Digestive System Surgical Procedures / Q000193:education*; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008297:Male; D015397:Program Evaluation