Do Surgery Residents Prepare Enough for Surgical Cases?

Importance: This study aimed to identify both modifiable and nonmodifiable factors that affect intraoperative-specific surgical education and performance, with an overall goal of increasing cognizance of such factors to improve surgical training.

Objective: To determine whether surgery residents prepare adequately for participation in surgical cases and to examine specific variables that affect resident preparation.

Design: This study is a retrospective survey-based study that included data from 1945 postoperative case evaluations completed by 59 different general surgery residents over a period of 8 years (2014-2022).

Setting: A Midwestern medical school's general surgery residency program.

Participants: Fifty-nine general surgery residents at Western Michigan University's medical school; 50 attending surgeons and faculty with whom residents regularly operate. The sample was comprised of residents and attendings who voluntarily filled out postoperative performance surveys after elective cases.

Results: This retrospective survey-based study included postoperative evaluation data from 1945 procedures performed by 59 different residents and 50 attendings. Participants included 36 male residents, 23 female residents, 39 male attendings, and 11 female attendings. All included data were for elective cases. Self-reported preoperative communication was worst at the PGY1 level with positive correlation of improvement yearly (r = 0.30, p < 0.001). Positive correlation was seen between overall preparedness and case complexity (r = 0.25, p < 0.001). Positive correlation was seen between case complexity and resident perception of intraoperative teaching quality (r = 0.53, p < 0.001). Preoperative communication initiated by residents was significantly worse when the attending surgeon was female, regardless of resident gender (p < 0.001); this effect was particularly profound with male residents. Male residents overall rated themselves as more prepared compared to their female counterparts (11.13 ± 1.96 vs. 10.84 ± 2.03, p = 0.003).

Conclusions And Relevance: There is a need to identify and address quantifiable gaps in communication between residents and faculty to optimize surgical education; one of the first steps is characterizing nonmodifiable factors that correlate with differences in pre-operative communication and case preparation.