Individualized Deliberate Practice on a Virtual Reality Simulator

Unity Health Toronto

Status: Completed

Conditions: General Surgery; Education

Treatments: Other: Deliberate Practice

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01753947

Deliberate Practice

Details and patient eligibility

About

Training on simulated models in a surgical skills laboratory has been shown to improve technical performance in the operating room. Currently described simulation-based curricula consist of trainees practicing the same tasks until expert proficiency is reached. It has yet to be investigated whether individualized deliberate practice, where curricula tasks vary depending on prior levels of technical proficiency, would translate to the operating room.

This randomized controlled trial effectively demonstrates that deliberate practice on a virtual reality simulator results in an improvement in technical skills in a real clinical situation. This enhances the feasibility of implementing simulation-based curricula into residency training programs, and consequently has the potential to improve patient safety.

Enrollment: 16 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• post graduate year 1 and 2 surgical residents
• performed less than 10 laparoscopic cholecystectomies as the primary surgeon

Exclusion criteria

• n/a

Trial design

16 participants in 2 patient groups

Deliberate Practice

Experimental group

Description:

Residents in the deliberate practice group received individualized feedback at the end of the initial assessment case. The staff surgeon supervising the case completed 3 previously validated technical skills assessment forms.

Treatment:

Other: Deliberate Practice

Conventional Feedback

No Intervention group

Description:

Residents in the control group received informal feedback as they performed the initial laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the operating room. This was left up to the discretion of the staff surgeon supervising the operation. This corresponds to the routine teaching and feedback practices that occur during conventional surgical residency training