title: Expert consensus of general surgery residents' proficiency with common endocrine operations.
abstract: Proficiency with common endocrine operations is expected of graduating, general surgery residents. However, no expert consensus guidelines exist about these expectations.
  
  
  
  Members of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons were surveyed about their opinions on resident proficiency with common endocrine operations.
  
  
  
  Overall response rate was 38%. A total of 92% of the respondents operate with residents. On average, they believed that the steps of a total thyroidectomy for benign disease and a well-localized parathyroidectomy could be performed by a postgraduate year 4 surgery resident. Specific steps that they thought might require more training included decisions to divide the strap muscles or leaving a drain. Approximately 66% of respondents thought that a postgraduate year 5 surgery resident could independently perform a total thyroidectomy for benign disease, but only 45% felt similarly for malignant thyroid disease; 79% thought that a postgraduate year 5 surgery resident could independently perform a parathyroidectomy. Respondents' years of experience correlated with their opinions about resident autonomy for total thyroidectomy (benign r = 0.38, P < .001; malignant r = 0.29, P = .001) but not parathyroidectomy. On multivariate analysis, sex and years of experience of the respondents were independently associated with opinions on autonomy but only for total thyroidectomy for benign disease (P = .001). Annual endocrine volume of the respondents did not correlate with beliefs in autonomy.
  
  
  
  There was general agreement among responding members of the AAES about resident proficiency and autonomy with common endocrine operations. As postgraduate year 5 residents may not be proficient in advanced endocrine operations, opportunities exist to improve training prior to the transition to independent practice for graduates that anticipate performing endocrine operations routinely.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Electronic address: rphitayakorn@mgh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Roy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Phitayakorn
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Center for Surgery and Health Economics, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Rachel R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Kelz
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Emil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Petrusa
authors.affiliation: Section of Endocrine Surgery, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
authors.forename: Rebecca S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Sippel
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Cord
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sturgeon
authors.affiliation: New York University Langone Medical Center, New York City, NY.
authors.forename: Kepal N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Nancy D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Perrier
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D032921:Consensus; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D013507:Endocrine Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States