Original ArticleOphthalmology Resident Surgical Competency: A National Survey
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
An anonymous written survey was mailed to program directors of ACGME-accredited ophthalmology residency programs in the United States in January 2001. Postage-paid envelopes without identifying marks were provided as an anonymous means by which to submit completed surveys.
The survey consisted of 14 questions whose format was a combination of multiple choice and free comment. All questions but 1 were grouped into 4 basic categories. The first group involved experiences with surgically challenged
Results
Of 110 distributed surveys, 58 (52%) were returned. These programs graduated 2179 residents between 1991 and 2000. One hundred ninety-nine residents were identified as having a significant problem developing surgical skills, representing 9% of the total residents considered. On an individual-program basis, the mean proportion of surgically challenged residents was 10% (standard deviation, 7%; range, 0%–35%). These figures were similar regardless of program size: 11% (standard deviation, 7%;
Discussion
The issue of ophthalmology residents who struggle to develop surgical competency seems to be very common. Ninety-seven percent of programs had such residents, who averaged 10% of an individual program’s graduates, and 9% of all residents in the responding programs had such problems. The latter figures are comparable with those found for problem residents in internal medicine programs and are half that of general surgery programs.7, 8 However, our data may underestimate the prevalence of
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Manuscript no. 2005-631.