Verification of Proficiency in Basic Skills for PGY-1 Surgical Residents: 10-Year Update.
OBJECTIVE
The American College of Surgeons and the Association of Program Directors in Surgery developed a curriculum in 2001 that involved instructional modules for 11 basic surgical skills and a standardized Verification of Proficiency (VOP) evaluation instrument. Our institution continues to employ a modified version of this curriculum and the purpose of this study was to provide a 10-year update on our VOP evaluation instrument used to assess postgraduate year 1 (PGY-1) residents on surgical skills.


DESIGN
All PGY-1 surgical residents over the past 10 years at our institution have completed the American College of Surgeons/the Association of Program Directors in Surgery-adapted basic surgical skills curriculum and VOP assessment. Retrospective analysis of VOP data for all residents was subjected to statistical analysis for internal validity and level of correlation.


SETTING
Department of Surgery at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine located in Springfield, Illinois.


PARTICIPANTS
All PGY-1 surgical residents (per year: 4 general surgery, 3 orthopedic surgery, 2 plastic surgery, 2 urology, 2 ENT, 1 vascular surgery, and 1 neurosurgery) over the past 10 years.


RESULTS
One hundred and thirty five residents underwent VOP evaluation over 10 years; 92 (68%) failed at least 1 module and 40 (30%) failed at least 2 modules. Residents who failed to demonstrate proficiency were mandated to complete remediation and retested until their scores were considered proficient. Performance on checklist items showed moderate internal consistency (⍺ ≥ 0.50) on 9 of 11 modules. Poor internal consistency (⍺ < 0.30) was noted for overall proficiency across all modules. Combined performance on checklist items and economy of time and motion demonstrated significant positive correlation (p < 0.05) with overall proficiency in every module.


CONCLUSIONS
The VOP instrument offers an internally valid means of assessing distinct basic skills of PGY-1 residents at basic surgical skills. The instrument provides critical formative and summative feedback on surgical skill performance to trainees.
['Beason|Austin M|AM|', 'Hitt|Collin E|CE|', 'Ketchum|Janet|J|', 'Rogers|Heather|H|', 'Sanfey|Hilary|H|']
D000328:Adult D002983:Clinical Competence D003479:Curriculum D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate D004521:Educational Measurement D005260:Female D013502:General Surgery D006801:Humans D007087:Illinois D007396:Internship and Residency D008297:Male D012189:Retrospective Studies
Surgical skills curriculum Assessment and performance Medical Knowledge Postgraduate education Practice-Based Learning and Improvement Technical skills