Effect of basic laparoscopic skills courses on essential knowledge of equipment.
BACKGROUND
This study aims to evaluate the effect of laparoscopic skills courses on the knowledge of laparoscopic equipment.


METHODS
A knowledge test on laparoscopic equipment was developed, and participants of 3 separate basic laparoscopic skills courses in the Netherlands completed the test at the beginning and end of these courses. All lectures and demonstrations during the courses were recorded on video to assess the matching of its contents with the items in the test. As a reference, the test was also completed by a group of laparoscopic experts by e-mail.


RESULTS
In total, 36 participants (64.3%) completed both the pretest and posttest. Overall, the mean test score improved from 60.4% of the maximum possible score for the pretest to 68.4% for the posttest. There were no significant differences in test scores between the 3 separate courses. However, the actual content varied among the courses. The correspondence of the test items with the course content varied from 47% to 69%. Although 30% of the participants had already received training for laparoscopic equipment in their own hospital, 92.5% wanted to receive more training. 28 experts completed the test with a mean score of 75.7%, which was significantly better than the posttest score of the course participants.


CONCLUSIONS
The laparoscopic skills courses evaluated in this study had a modest positive effect on the acquisition of knowledge about laparoscopic equipment. Variance exists among their contents.
Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft, Netherlands. p.d.vanhove@tudelft.nl
P Diederick
PD
van Hove
Emiel G G
EG
Verdaasdonk
Erwin
E
van der Harst
Frank Willem
FW
Jansen
Jenny
J
Dankelman
Laurents P S
LP
Stassen
D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000193:education* / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires