Use of an Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill After a Sports Medicine Rotation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of an Objective Structured Assessment of Technical skill (OSATS), using dry models, would be a valid method of assessing residents' ability to perform sports medicine procedures after training in a competency-based model.

Methods: Over 18 months, 27 residents (19 junior [postgraduate year (PGY) 1-3] and 8 senior [PGY 4-5]) sat the OSATS after their rotation, in addition to 14 sports medicine staff and fellows. Each resident was provided a list of 10 procedures in which they were expected to show competence. At the end of the rotation, each resident undertook an OSATS composed of 6 stations sampled from the 10 procedures using dry models-faculty used the Arthroscopic Surgical Skill Evaluation Tool (ASSET), task-specific checklists, as well as an overall 5-point global rating scale (GRS) to score each resident. Each procedure was videotaped for blinded review.

Results: The overall reliability of the OSATS (0.9) and the inter-rater reliability (0.9) were both high. A significant difference by year in training was seen for the overall GRS, the total ASSET score, and the total checklist score, as well as for each technical procedure (P < .001). Further analysis revealed a significant difference in the total ASSET score between junior (mean 18.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 16.8 to 19.9) and senior residents (24.2, 95% CI 22.7 to 25.6), senior residents and fellows (30.1, 95% CI 28.2 to 31.9), as well as between fellows and faculty (37, 95% CI 36.1 to 27.8) (P < .05).

Conclusions: The results of this study show that an OSATS using dry models shows evidence of validity when used to assess performance of technical procedures after a sports medicine rotation. However, junior residents were not able to perform as well as senior residents, suggesting that overall surgical experience is as important as intensive teaching.

Clinical Relevance: As postgraduate medical training shifts to a competency-based model, methods of assessing performance of technical procedures become necessary.