M. Malekpour1, J. Dove1, H. Ellison1, M. Shabahang1 1Geisinger Medical Center,Department Of General Surgery,Danville, PENNSYLVANIA, USA
Introduction:
Dedicated didactic time is now an innate part of any residency training yet the appropriate method is debated. Academic half days (AHD) have been adopted by many medical residencies and some surgical ones. In this study, we aimed to compare the outcome of AHD versus daily morning didactics (MD) in an accredited General Surgery residency training program.
Methods:
The didactic method of 2015-2016 academic-year had been 7-8 AM weekday MD and the didactic method of 2016-2017 academic-year had been once-a-week AHD. We studied the changes in American Board of Surgery In-Training Exam (ABSITE) and the number of cases that were missed annually for each didactic method. We also used a questionnaire to investigate the residents’ and attending physicians’ subjective assessment for each didactic method.
Results:
No person-to-person or class-to-class change in the ABSITE score was observed with the AHD (both p>0.5). With MD, residents had missed 35 cases whereas 319 cases were missed by residents with AHD over a one year period. Although the majority of attending physicians (70.9%) assessed the academic activities to be more organized with AHD, the same number (70.9%) were under the impression that residents had missed more cases, which aligns with the objective data. The majority of residents (61.5%) found AHD to have made academic activities organized yet less than half (46.1%) of the residents were under the impression that more cases had been missed with AHD.
Conclusion:
AHD was associated with more missed cases and was not associated with improved ABSITE scores. This should be taken into consideration by general surgery residency programs in their tailored didactic method.