Simulation Could Offer Beneficial Training Opportunities for Surgeons

Simulation could offer beneficial training opportunities for surgeons with many participants in multidisciplinary sessions offering positive feedback, an article in the latest Australia and New Zealand Journal of Surgery has found.
Although the current state of team training for surgery is in its infancy, sessions are widely accepted by participants. Simulation is also playing an increasingly important role for successfully delivering training in technical as well as non-technical skills.
A common point was the high value given to the debriefing session after the simulations including the use of video recordings to facilitate discussion and teaching. This gives trainees an opportunity to analyse and reflect on their performance, receive feedback and talk over what happened, leading to higher rates of retention.
Guy Maddern from the Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures and a Fellow of the Royal Australiasian College of Surgeons, has said the opportunities for training in these environments could be hugely beneficial.
“This review shows that multidisciplinary team training for surgery is feasible and should be tailored to conditions and experiences in organisations,” Professor Maddern said.
“Whether this change translates to actual practice is largely unknown at this stage, however that is why we think future research in this area should be more scientific, seeking to measure the impact of training on actual operative experience.”
A review of relevant articles was undertaken, with most studies including descriptions of training programs with low-level evidence. No randomised trials were included however other criteria for inclusion were a contained simulation component, included surgical trainees or surgeons in a multidisciplinary team, and were published between 1990 and 2012