Poster5-01: RESIDENT PERSPECTIVES ON EFFECTIVE SURGICAL EDUCATION
Oksana Babchenko, MD, Sarah Sullivan, PhD, Sarah Frank, BA, Shady Elmaraghi, MD, Shruthi Thiagarajasubramanian, MD, Victoria Rendell, MD, Harry Nayar, MD, Michael L Bentz, MD, FAAP, FACS, Catharine B Garland, MD; University of Wisconsin

Background: The operating room (OR) educational milieu – including faculty-resident interactions, residents’ internal states (e.g. confidence, mindset, emotion), and faculty’s influence on those internal states – has not been thoroughly examined in a surgical training context. Negative faculty-resident interactions can function as distractors that hijack working memory away from the operation and are primary drivers of resident attrition. Education research has demonstrated that teachers’ feedback approaches can affect students’ self-perceptions and thus impact confidence, performance, and future responses to challenges. The goal of this study was to solicit resident perspectives on these subtle but important influences on resident training.

Methods: An 11-question, open-ended survey was distributed to all surgical residents at our institution. Residents were asked to describe teaching methods and personal mindsets that were conducive vs. obstructive to learning. Recurring themes were identified utilizing line-by-line content analysis by two coders per question.

Results: Thirty-six of 134 residents (26.8%) completed the full survey, and 6 completed parts of it.  Inter-coder reliability was 91-96%.

Recurring themes were (percentage of residents that stated a given theme is in parenthesis):

Effective educators were identified to possess humane qualities (62%) including patience (36%), to prioritize teaching (49%), and allow resident autonomy (26%).  Ineffective educators were described as lacking efforts to educate (56%), including inadequate allowance of autonomy (22%).  They were also described as impatient (27%) and short-tempered (20%).

Almost all residents (97%) affirmed that there were certain mindsets that helped them excel in the OR, including positivity/optimism (54%) and confidence (34%). Almost all (97%) residents affirmed that faculty and senior residents influenced those mindsets. When asked about what promotes their constructive mindsets, the top themes were positive faculty mood/behaviors (38%) and one’s own preparation (34%).  Factors contributing to poor OR performance were identified as inadequate preparation (49%) and negative interactions with faculty (34%).

Conclusion: Residents overwhelmingly felt that faculty influence their confidence and mindset during surgical training. Effective educators exhibit humane qualities and prioritize teaching. Poor preparation and discouraging interactions with faculty may have negative effects on resident learning and performance.