Quality assessment in healthcare is an essential part of governance culture. Clinical outcomes and research output are routinely assessed with national and global comparisons commonplace in a bid to continually drive up standards. While the subject of surgical training has received greater exposure in recent years, there remains no rigorous assessment of surgical training quality in the same way as clinical and research outcomes. To improve surgical training quality, high quality training must first be defined to permit evaluation of training and facilitate identification of methods to raise standards. Variability of global surgical training programs is first identified by comparing the national surgical curricula of a sample of countries against defined standards for curricula. A questionnaire study further explores the variations between the two nations with the most contrasting surgical curricula. Qualitative methodologies, including semi-structured interviews and a global Delphi consensus study, are subsequently employed to define high quality surgical training. The results have enabled the development of a surgical training quality assessment tool (S-QAT). The S-QAT has been piloted in the North West London training region where variability in surgical training quality has been confirmed. Defining high quality training has facilitated the development and piloting of interventions to improve surgical training quality. The first intervention employs video-based coaching to improve surgical skills. The second intervention is an intensive, immersive week of simulation training to ease the transition from medical student to Foundation Doctor. These interventions demonstrate that improvements in training quality can be made without the need to rely on increasing the quantity or time in training. The foundations for robust evaluation of surgical training quality have been constructed. Evidence-based medicine is the gold standard for patients; evidence-based training of surgeons will ensure standards are maintained for the next generation of patients.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:686303 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Singh, Pritam |
| Contributors | Darzi, Ara ; Aggarwal, Rajesh |
| Publisher | Imperial College London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/33207 |
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