title: How, when, and from whom neck dissection operative technique is learned: An international survey on neck dissection education among head and neck oncologic surgeons.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a paucity of evidence on how neck dissection (ND) technique is best learned.
  
  
  METHODS
  Online survey of the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  283 of the 1010 (28%) AHNS surgeon members completed the survey. Most respondents had 3-4 mentors [n=157 (55.5%)] that they felt were most influential their ND technique. 134 (47.3% of surgeons who completed a fellowship) felt that fellowship training had the most impact on their ND technique. Most respondents ranked the most effective methods of learning ND operative technique in the following order: 1) physically performing the operation yourself (70.1%), 2) observing the attending perform maneuvers independent of verbal teaching (37.7%) and 3) verbal teaching by an attending in the operating room independent of actual maneuvers (36.3%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When learning an ND, the most benefit comes from empirical learning in the context a small group of surgeon mentors.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Shirin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hemmat
authors.affiliation: Division of Head and Neck Oncologic and Endocrine Surgery, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Division of Head and Neck Oncologic and Endocrine Surgery, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. Electronic address: william.ryan@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: William R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005257:Fellowships and Scholarships; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors; D008875:Middle Aged; D037981:Neck Dissection / Q000193:education*; D012649:Self Concept; D000071077:Surgical Oncology / Q000193:education*; D014481:United States