Procedure-to-procedure Transfer Trial

Rigshospitalet

Status: Completed

Conditions: Surgery

Treatments: Other: Practice a procedural module on a simulator

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02069951

102169

Details and patient eligibility

About

Surgical training programs using virtual reality simulators often only use basic skills training and the use of procedural training is very limited. Procedural training differs from basic skills training by requiring integration of isolated skills and decision making and planning components. However, it is unknown if it is necessary to practice all procedures before operating on actual patients or whether it is simply a matter of learning psychomotor skills and if these skills are transferable between different tasks.

The main hypothesis is that practicing a laparoscopic procedure on a simulator makes it easier to reach proficiency on a different laparoscopic procedure on the simulator because participants have already practiced the integration of isolated skills.

Enrollment: 96 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Medical students enrolled at The Faculty of Health Science, University of Copenhagen.
• Obtained the bachelor degree in medicine.
• Signed informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Previous participation in trials involving laparoscopic training.
• Experience with laparoscopy surgery (having performed minimum one laparoscopic procedure as primary surgeon, including supervised procedures).
• No informed consent.
• Does not speak Danish on a conversational level.

Trial design

96 participants in 2 patient groups

Practice two procedures on a simulator

Experimental group

Description:

All participants start by practicing a series of six basic skills modules until they reach a predefined proficiency level for each module. For all of the basic skills exercises proficiency is reached when the participants have passed the proficiency level for all exercises. Participants randomised to the intervention group will practice two procedures on a simulator. First a procedural module A (a laparoscopic appendectomy) to a predefined proficiency level. Upon reaching proficiency for procedural module A the participants will practice procedural module B (a laparoscopic salpingectomy) to a predefined proficiency level.

Treatment:

Other: Practice a procedural module on a simulator

Practice one procedure on a simulator

No Intervention group

Description:

All participants start by practicing a series of six basic skills modules until they reach a predefined proficiency level for each module. For all of the basic skills exercises proficiency is reached when the participants have passed the proficiency level for all exercises. Each exercise has to be passed twice within five consecutive attempts. Participants randomised to the control group will practice procedural module B (a laparoscopic salpingectomy) to a predefined proficiency level.