title: Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)-based Assessment of the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Course in Iran.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of advance trauma life support (ATLS®) training on general surgery residents clinical reasoning skills using the national boards-style objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional single-center study was conducted in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences including 51 surgery residents that participated in a mandatory national board style OSCE between May 2014 and May 2015. OSCE scores of two groups of general surgery residents including 23 ATLS® trained and 28 non-ATLS® trained were compared using Mann-Whitney U test. The exam was graded out of 20 points and the passing score was ≥14 including 40% trauma cases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 8(15.7%) women and 43(84.3%) men among the participants with mean age of 31.12 ± 2.69 and 33.67 ± 4.39 years in women and men respectively. Overall 7 (87.5%) women and 34 (79.07%) men passed the OSCE. The trauma section OSCE score was significantly higher in the ATLS® trained participants when compared to non-ATLS®(7.79 ± 0.81vs.6.90 ± 1.00; p=0.001). In addition, the total score was also significantly higher in ATLS® trained residents (16.07 ± 1.41 vs. 14.60 ± 1.40; p=0.001). There was no association between gender and ATLS® score (p=0.245) or passing the OSCE (p=0.503).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ATLS® training is associated with improved overall OSCE scores of general surgery residents completing the board examinations suggesting a positive transfer of ATLS learned skills to management of simulated surgical patients including trauma cases.
authors.affiliation: Trauma Research Center, Shahid Rajaee (Emtiaz) Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran  
authors.forename: Hamid Reza
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Abbasi
authors.affiliation: Quality Improvement in Clinical Teaching Research Center, Education Development Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran  
authors.forename: Mitra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amini
authors.affiliation: Trauma Research Center, Shahid Rajaee (Emtiaz) Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran  
authors.forename: Shahram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bolandparvaz
authors.affiliation: Trauma Research Center, Shahid Rajaee (Emtiaz) Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran  
authors.forename: Shahram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paydar
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada  
authors.forename: Jameel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Medical Imaging Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Sepideh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sefidbakht
keywords: Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS®); Course; Iran.; Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE); Surgeons; Trauma