Facilitating the implementation of the American College of Surgeons/Association of Program Directors in Surgery phase III skills curriculum: training faculty in the assessment of team skills.

Background: Effective teamwork is critical to safety in the operating room; however, implementation of phase III of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS) Curriculum that focuses on team-based skills remains worryingly low. Training and assessing the complexities of teamwork is challenging. The objective of this study was to establish guidelines and recommendations for training faculty in assessing/debriefing team skills.

Multicenter longitudinal assessment of resident technical skills.

Background: Our aim was to report the longitudinal assessment of technical performance of general surgery residents on select tasks from multiple programs over a 2-year period.

Methods: An institutional review board-approved, multi-institutional collaborative study was undertaken with yearly resident performance assessments over a 3-year period. General surgery residents (postgraduate year [PGY] 1 to 5) were tested on 3 laparoscopic and 5 open simulated surgical tasks.

Simulation in surgery: what's needed next?

Objective: To review the current state of simulation use in surgery and to offer direction for future research and implementation of evidence-based findings.

Background: Simulation-based training (SBT) in surgery has surged in recent years. Although several new simulators and curricula have become available, their optimization and implementation into surgical training has been lagging.

Establishing technical performance norms for general surgery residents.

Background: Surgery residents are required to achieve performance milestones to advance in their residency. Level-specific, technical performance norms that could be used as milestones, however, do not currently exist. Our aim was to develop level-specific, technical performance norms for general surgery residents on select simulated tasks across multiple institutions.