Attributes of Candidates Passing the ABS Certifying Examination on the First Attempt-Program Directors׳ Perspective.

Background: The American Board of Surgery Certifying Examination (CE) is a pivotal event in a surgeon's career development, as it is the last challenge before achieving Board certification. First-time pass rate on the CE is one of the key metrics of surgery residency programs. The overall pass rate on the CE has declined significantly in recent years.

Objectives: The goal of this study was the identification of attributes of general surgery residents that are associated with passing the CE at the first attempt.

Methods: The modified Delphi process was used to survey general surgery program directors. The study was conducted in 2 rounds in the interest of time available for surgical education research fellowship project.

Results: All 259 program directors were contacted in each round of surveys. In all, 49 (19%) responded to the first round and 54 (21%) responded to the second round of survey.

Conclusions: The characteristics of a successful resident on CE include confidence, self-motivation, sound knowledge base, strong performance on the Board's training examination (American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination), and mock orals, and good communication skills. Postgraduate years 4 and 5 are the most likely resident levels at which failure could be predicted.