B. Hasty1, E. Shipper1, J. Lau1, D. Lin1 1Stanford University,General Surgery,Palo Alto, CA, USA
Introduction:
Currently we are in a paradigm shift from the apprenticeship model of surgical training to a competency based model therefore increasing the need for resident assessment. Web-based assessment platforms have grown in popularity among residency programs however still lack the portability and accessibility of mobile-based applications. Today, operative assessments are required to be board eligible in general surgery, however, residents have difficulty gathering assessments on operative competency in a timely, accurate, and reliable manner. Our purpose was to characterize the current use of our web-based platform and identify barriers to its use by both faculty and residents.
Methods:
An anonymous voluntary survey was distributed to residents and faculty in a general surgery subspecialty at a single institution. Selected response questions were used to asked participants to describe their use of our current web-based platform and barriers to its use. The data were tabulated using Qualtrics and were analyzed using basic descriptive statistics.
Results:
Between July 2016 and August 2016 twelve faculty and five residents completed the survey with a response rate of 65% and 33% respectively. Most faculty had greater than 15 years of experience in their field and all were familiar with the web-based platform. On average, faculty completed one assessment per resident per month with 67% of faculty completing assessments greater than one week from the operation. 83% of faculty required prompting from their department prior to completing an assessment. 40% of residents had not received an operative assessment in the last month reporting they were “Not satisfied at all” with the frequency of assessments. 67% of residents also rated the quality of their assessments as “Average” and most faculty noted no change in operative performance as a result of their web-based assessments. The most common barriers to the completion of assessments included perceived lack of time and accessibility of the assessments.
Conclusion:
It has been estimated that residents require 20 assessments per year in order to accurately and reliably assess resident operative performance. Our findings suggest resident assessments are neither timely nor frequent, thus limiting their utility in accurately evaluating resident performance and also impacting the way they operate. The most cited barriers to the completion of operative assessments were perceived lack of time and accessibility. Furthermore, a mobile-based platform for resident assessment would potentially alleviate these barriers and therefore increase the timeliness, accuracy, and reliability of assessments.