Intern Olympics as a Tool to Reinforce Surgical Skills Acquisition

摘要

Acquisition and retention of surgical skills (SS) is a fundamental goal during general surgical training.~(1) To lay the groundwork for technical aptitude, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education mandated initiation of an SS course at the start of residency. Although many programs have established that preclinical sessions provide an opportunity for SS acquisition, maintaining retention remains elusive.~(2) A few programs have started an Intern Olympics (IO) as a motivational and team-building educational event.~(3) In addition, IO provides an opportunity for objective evaluation of knowledge and SS.~(4) We hypothesized that improved SS could be maintained by encouraging practice for IO.The incoming class at an academic surgical residency program participated in a mandatory orientation, which incorporated SS instruction, including knot tying. Of the 15 (6 categorical and 9 preliminary) orientation participants, 10 competed in the IO and 5 were excused (work-hour restrictions). Those 10 participants with measurements at all 3points were included in the data analysis.