Resident Preparation for Careers in General Surgery: A Survey of Program Directors

Outcomes in Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass and Implications for Surgical Resident Education

OBJECTIVES

Some surgery residents feel inadequately prepared to perform advanced operations, partly due to losing operative opportunities to fellows. In turn, they are prompted to pursue fellowships. Allowing residents the opportunity to participate in advanced procedures and complex cases may alleviate this cycle, if their participation is safe. This study examined the effects of resident participation in laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedures (LRYGBs).

DESIGN

Our MBSAQIP database was used to identify LRYGBs performed at our institution between 2015 and 2018. Operative notes were reviewed to determine training level of the assistant. Patient comorbidities and outcomes (duration of surgery, length of stay, post-operative complications, readmissions, and reoperations) were stratified by assistant level of training for comparison.

SETTING

Urban tertiary care hospital.

PARTICIPANTS

Trainees and attending surgeons acting as assistants during LRYGBs.

RESULTS

Among 987 total cases, the assistants for the procedures were chief residents (n = 549, 56%), fourth-year residents (n = 258, 26%), attending surgeons (n = 143, 14%), and third-year residents (n = 37, 4%). Attending surgeons assisted more often when patients had a BMI ≥ 45 (38% attendings vs. 25% residents, p = 0.007), ≥ 2 comorbidities (54% vs. 40%, p = 0.007), or had a history of prior bariatric surgery (22% vs. 3%, p < 0.0001).Post-operative complication rate was low (4%) and did not differ significantly between all training levels (p = 0.86). Average length of stay, readmission rates, and reoperation rates were not significantly different across training levels (p = 0.75, p = 0.072, and p = 0.91 respectively).

CONCLUSION

Complication rates, hospital length of stay, readmission rates, and reoperation rates were equivalent for patients regardless of the level of training of the assistant for LRYGBs. Involving residents in complex bariatric procedures such as LRYGB is a safe model of education that does not compromise patient safety or hospital outcomes. Involvement in advanced cases allows general surgery residents to more confidently move toward independent practice.

Upper GI training of young surgeons: a reality full of hurdles. An international survey

OBJECTIVE

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the training of young surgeons in Upper GI is not homogeneous across the world. This survey aimed to investigate the different training programs and the level of satisfaction of young surgeons with their surgical and scientific education pathway.

DESIGN

A multiple-choice and single best answer format questionnaire was sent to 36 Upper GI chairs from international referral centres and then forwarded to young surgeons (attending physician less than 40 years old). The same questionnaire containing 5 main topics (demographics, residency, fellowship, academic research and activities, manual skill improvement) was posted online on a Surveymonkey website.

SETTING

San Luigi University Hospital, Orbassano (Turin), Italy; Tertiary University Hospital.

RESULTS

Fourteen replies were received from colleagues in 36 referral centres (39% response rate) and 65 voluntary answers from the survey monkey platform. During residency training, only 43% of residents had a specific training in upper GI tract surgery, which was characterized by a small number of interventions performed both with trainer scrubbed and unscrubbed. Fellowship programmes were undertaken by 49% of participants and 64% spent this training period abroad. Operative experience was reported by nearly all respondents with only 27% performing > 10 gastrectomies and only 11% performing > 10 oesophagectomies with the trainer scrubbed. The majority attended less than 10 meetings (58%), and 70% of them published less than 5 papers.

CONCLUSIONS

The present survey reveals that the young surgeons of the twenty-first century face many hurdles during their surgical training. Overall, the surgical education settings are limited for both practical and scientific training for upper GI trainees. As a result, it is not possible to train in upper GI surgery to a level of competent independent practice.

Transition to Practice: A Global Surgery Approach

OBJECTIVE

To determine the feasibility of a global surgery setting for a transition to practice experience.

SETTING

A rural hospital in Malawi, Africa.

PARTICIPANTS

A recent graduate of a U.S. general surgery residency program.

RESULTS

Fellow performed 305 cases across the surgical disciplines with demonstrated improvements in operative ability.

CONCLUSION

The global surgery approach to transition to practice offers a unique opportunity to complement domestic training while providing critical assistance to communities with few surgical providers.

Implementing a resident acute care surgery service: Improving resident education and patient care

BACKGROUND

To simulate the duties and responsibilities of an attending surgeon and allow senior residents more intraoperative and perioperative autonomy, our program created a new resident acute care surgery consult service.

METHODS

We structured resident acute care surgery as a new admitting and inpatient consult service managed by chief and senior residents with attending supervision. When appropriate, the chief resident served as a teaching assistant in the operation. Outcomes were recorded prospectively and reviewed at weekly quality improvement conferences. The following information was collected: (1) teaching assistant case logs for senior residents preimplentation (n = 10) and postimplementation (n = 5) of the resident acute care surgery service; (2) data on the proportion of each case performed independently by residents; (3) resident evaluations of the resident acute care surgery versus other general operative services; (4) consult time for the first 12 months of the service (June 2014 to June 2015).

RESULTS

During the first year after implementation, the number of total teaching assistant cases logged among graduating chief residents increased from a mean of 13.4 ± 13.0 (range 4-44) for preresident acute care surgery residents to 30.8 ± 8.8 (range 27-36) for postresident acute care surgery residents (P < .01). Of 323 operative cases, the residents performed an average of 82% of the case independently. There was a significant increase in the satisfaction with the variety of cases (mean 5.08 vs 4.52, P < .01 on a 6-point Likert scale) and complexity of cases (mean 5.35 vs 4.94, P < .01) on service evaluations of resident acute care surgery (n = 27) in comparison with other general operative services (n = 127). In addition, creation of a 1-team consult service resulted in a more streamlined consult process with average consult time of 22 minutes for operative consults and 25 minutes for nonoperative consults (range 5-90 minutes).

CONCLUSION

The implementation of a resident acute care surgery service has increased resident autonomy, teaching assistant cases, and satisfaction with operative case variety, as well as the efficiency of operative consultation at our institution.

The Effect of Patient Education on the Perceptions of Resident Participation in Surgical Care

OBJECTIVE

To decipher if patient attitudes toward resident participation in their surgical care can be improved with patient education regarding resident roles, education, and responsibilities.

DESIGN

An anonymous questionnaire was created and distributed in outpatient surgery clinics that had residents involved with patient care. In total, 3 groups of patients were surveyed, a control group and 2 intervention groups. Each intervention group was given an informational pamphlet explaining the role, education, and responsibilities of residents. The first pamphlet used an analogy-based explanation. The second pamphlet used literature citations and statistics.

SETTING

Keesler Medical Center, Keesler AFB, MS. University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 454 responses were collected and analyzed-211 in the control group, 118 in the analogy pamphlet group, and 125 in the statistics pamphlet group.

RESULTS

Patients had favorable views of residents assisting with their surgical procedures, and the majority felt that outcomes were the same or better regardless of whether they read an informational pamphlet. Of all the patients surveyed, 80% agreed or strongly agreed that they expect to be asked permission for residents to be involved in their care. Further, 52% of patients in the control group agreed or strongly agreed to a fifth-year surgery resident operating on them independently for routine procedures compared to 62% and 65% of the patients who read the analogy pamphlet and statistics pamphlet, respectively (p = 0.05). When we combined the 2 intervention groups compared to the control group, this significant difference persisted (p = 0.02).

CONCLUSION

Most patients welcome resident participation in their surgical care, but they expect to be asked permission for resident involvement. Patient education using an information pamphlet describing resident roles, education, and responsibilities improved patient willingness to allow a chief resident to operate independently.