PS7-01: GREAT EXPECTATIONS? FUTURE COMPETENCY REQUIREMENTS AMONG CANDIDATES ENTERING SURGERY TRAINING
Aimee K Gardner, PhD1, Katelyn Cavanaugh, PhD2, Ross Willis, PhD3, Daniel Dent, MD4, Henry Reinhart, MD5, Mark Williams, MD6, Bradford G Scott, MD7, Michael Truitt, MD8, Brian J Dunkin, MD9; 1SurgWise Consulting, Baylor College of Medicine, 2SurgWise Consulting, MD Anderson Cancer Center, 3SurgWise Consulting, University of Texas Health Sciences Center San Antonio, 4University of Texas Health Sciences Center San Antonio, 5University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, 6Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Lubbock, 7Baylor College of Medicine, 8Dallas Methodist Hospital, 9SurgWise Consulting
Introduction: Surgical training has changed significantly in the past twenty years and will likely continue to evolve as competency-based training and assessment practices become more refined. These changes require that residency programs explore how current competencies linked to success in surgical training may change in the foreseeable future so they may design relevant and effective selection systems. We describe a multi-method, multi-institutional approach documenting future competencies required for entry into general surgery training.
Methods: Residency programs involved in a statewide collaborative provided 12-15 subject matter experts (SMEs) to participate. SME inclusion criteria required that all interviewees be central to the education program (PD, APD, Clinical Competency Committee member, etc.) or represent a high-performing incumbent trainee. Each SME participated in a one-hour semi-structured interview with organizational psychologists to discuss program culture and expectations, and rated the importance of 20 core competencies derived from the literature for candidates entering general surgery training within the next 3-5 years (1=importance decreases significantly; 3=importance stays the same; 5=importance increases significantly). Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, and ANOVA were used to analyze the data using SPSS 25.
Results: Seventy-three SMEs across five programs were interviewed (71% faculty; 23% resident; 6% administration). Overall agreement on the future importance of the 20 competencies across all programs was high (ICC=0.95). Additionally, there were no significant differences between any of the five programs on the future importance of these competencies. All competencies were rated to be more important in the next 3-5 years, with team orientation (3.87 ± 0.81), communication (3.82 ± 0.79), team leadership (3.81 ± 0.82), feedback receptivity (3.79 ± 0.76), and professionalism (3.76 ± 0.89) rated most highly. There were no differences between resident and faculty ratings of future importance of these competencies, nor did any interviewee report that the provided list was missing key competencies.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that the competencies needed among future surgery residents are likely to change. As such, programs should ensure that their screening and selection methods will be equipped to objectively measure many of these “soft” skills not otherwise available in traditional application packets.