Abstract:

INTRODUCTION The objectives were to: (i) establish how 'typical' consultant surgeons perform on 'generic' (non-specialist) surgical simulations before their use in the General Medical Council's Performance Procedures (PPs); (ii) measure any differences in performance between specialties; and (iii) compare the performance of group of surgeons in the PPs with the 'typical' group.

VOLUNTEERS AND METHODS Seventy-four consultant volunteers in gastrointestinal surgery (n = 21), vascular surgery (n = 11), urology (n = 10), orthopaedics (n = 15), cardiothoracic surgery (n = 10) and plastic surgery (n = 7), plus 9 surgeons undertaking phase 2 of the PPs undertook 7 simple simulations in the skills laboratory. The scores of the volunteers were analysed by simulation and specialty using ANOVA. The scores of the volunteers were then compared with the scores of the surgeons in the PPs.

RESULTS There were significant differences between simulations, but most volunteers achieved scores of 75-100%. There was a significant simulation by specialty interaction indicating that the scores of some specialties differed on some simulations. The scores of the group of surgeons in the PPs were significantly lower than the reference group for most simulations.

CONCLUSIONS Simple simulations can be used to assess the basic technical skills of consultant surgeons. The simulation by specialty interaction suggests that whilst some skills may be generic, others are not. The lower scores of the surgeons in the PPs suggest that these tests possess criterion validity, i.e. they may help to determine when poor performance is due to lack of technical competence.

Keywords: SURGERY; SKILLS; SIMULATIONS; COMPETENCE; ASSESSMENT

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1308/003588405X51100

Affiliations: 1: Programme Director for Higher Surgical Training, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Sheffield, UK 2: Department of Medical Education, Monash University, Australia 3: Performance Assessment Implementation Group, UK General Medical Council, London, UK 4: Department of Medical Education, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK 5: Surgical Tutor at The Royal College of Surgeons of England, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Sheffield, UK 6: Department of Surgery, Rotherham General Hospital, Rotherham, UK