title: Assessment of improvement of trainee surgical skills in the operating room for tonsillectomy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the feasibility, reliability, and validity of an objective surgical assessment tool designed to measure the development of tonsillectomy skills by resident trainees in the operating room. A tonsillectomy evaluation instrument created previously serves as a basis for this tool, which incorporates many similar concepts but was optimized to maximize feasibility and reliability with simplified anchors and inclusion of global and task-specific sections.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective longitudinal validation study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Faculty input via modified Delphi technique was used to develop a new objective structured assessment of technical skills-based instrument for tonsillectomy. The task-specific checklist (TSC) and global rating scale (GRS) measured tonsillectomy technical skills and overall surgical performance, respectively. Twenty-one otolaryngology-head and neck residents (ranging from postgraduate year 1 to 6) were evaluated for a period of 3 years by 11 faculty members.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty-three evaluations were completed showing strong correlation between both instruments (r = 0.95, P < .001). Our tool demonstrated construct validity for both TSC and GRS, showing higher scores with increasing surgical experience. Both instruments showed high interitem reliability with Cronbach α coefficients of 0.97 for both parts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This assessment tool is a feasible, reliable, and valid instrument for the assessment of surgical competency in tonsillectomy. It is effective in providing structured feedback at the end of each procedure, which encourages specific, targeted development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Aadil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Stacey L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Ishman
authors.forename: Kulsoom
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Laeeq
authors.forename: Nasir I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Bhatti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014068:Tonsillectomy / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards*