Accurate surgical skills evaluation: Does it mandate raters have a medical background?

Background: Surgeons rarely have time to assess/rate trainee performance. From a 10 year-experience of implementing OSCE style assessments, we hypothesize that the accurate scoring of interns in selected tests is not affected by the rater's medical background.

Methods: A prospective collection of quantitative scoring data by both medical school graduates and college students was compared. Each rater underwent training and then watched three videos of actors performing in each of two OSCE stations and individually scored them.

Results: Twelve college students and 16 medical graduates participated. There was no difference in the mean scores between rating groups for chest tube insertion (Video 1: 1.7 vs. 2.0; Video 2: 2.9 vs 3.1; Video 3: 6.1 vs 6.1; p = 0.8) and cricothyrotomy (Video 1: 4.0 vs 4.5; Video 2: 4.8 vs 5.1; Video 3: 9.2 vs 9.1; p = 0.7).

Conclusion: Accurate scoring of surgical performance does not mandate a medical background. Given the limited availability of attending surgeons for assessments, use of validated, simple checklists can help raters with minimal medical experience perform assessments proficiently.