Family medicine residents in central Saudi Arabia. How much do they know and how confident are they in performing minor surgical procedures?

Objectives: To explore the knowledge, practice, barriers and reported self-confidence of family medicine (FM) residents in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in performing minor surgical procedures (MSP).

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing questionnaires to 267 family medicine residents in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between May and July 2016. The questionnaire includes 7 categories with 71 questions about: knowledge, interest, experience and confidence in performing different MSPs, prior training in MSPs, perceived barriers to performing MSPs and ways to improve basic surgical skills.

Results: The response rate was 71.9%. Residents had a mean knowledge score of 15.75% and a mean interest score of 10.4 out of 12. Out of 23 MSPs surveyed, residents had performed a mean average of 9.18. The mean of residents' confidence scores was 26.6 out of 63. The most common barrier to performing MSPs was a lack of training (n=115; 59.9%), while the least common barrier was a lack of interest (n=113; 58.9%). Participants consider intensive education to be the the most effective way to improve their performance, while increasing the duration of some rotations found to be the least effective way for improvement.

Conclusion: A majority of FM residents were interested in MSP, but had low perceived knowledge, low reported confidence and infrequent practice. Family medicine programs should provide continuous standardized training by a qualified and interested trainer within the FM setting.