Impact of continuous training through distributed practice for acquisition of minimally invasive surgical skills.

Background: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) requires the mastery of manual skills and a specific training is required. Apart from residencies and fellowships in MIS, other learning opportunities utilize massive training, mainly with use of simulators in short courses. A long-term postgraduate course represents an opportunity to learn through training using distributed practice.

Retention of laparoscopic skills in naive medical students who underwent short training.

Background: Simulators are useful tools in the development of laparoscopic skills. However, little is known about the effectiveness of short laparoscopic training sessions and how retention of skills occurs in surgical trainees who are naïve to laparoscopy. This study analyses the retention of laparoscopic surgical skills in medical students without prior surgical training.

Development of laparoscopic skills in medical students naive to surgical training.

Objective: To assess the acquisition of basic laparoscopic skills of Medical students trained on a surgical simulator.

Methods: First- and second-year Medical students participated on a laparoscopic training program on simulators. None of the students had previous classes of surgical technique, exposure to surgical practice nor training prior to the enrollment in to the study.