US general surgical trainee performance for representative global surgery procedures
Kenneth L. Abbott, Gifty Kwakye, Grace J. Kim, John L. Luckoski, Andrew E. Krumm, Michael Clark, Xilin Chen, Tanvi Gupta, Thomas G.Weiser, Brian C.George
American Journal of Surgery, February 2022
Abstract
Background
Many US general surgery residents are interested in global surgery, but their competence with key procedures is unknown.
Methods
Using a registry managed by the Society for Improving Medical Professional Learning (SIMPL), we extracted longitudinal operative performance ratings data for a national cohort of US general surgery residents. Operative performance at the time of graduation was estimated via a Bayesian generalized linear mixed model.
Results
Operative performance ratings for 12,976 procedures performed by 1584 residents in 52 general surgery programs were analyzed. These spanned 17 of 31 (55%) procedures deemed important for global surgical practice. For these procedures, the probability of a graduating resident being deemed competent to perform a procedure was 0.95 (95% confidence interval 0.86–1.00) but was less than 0.9 for 3 observed procedures.
Conclusion
Our results highlight gaps in the preparedness of US general surgery trainees to perform procedures deemed most important for global surgery settings.