Are general surgeons able to accurately self-assess their level of technical skills?

Abstract

Introduction Self-assessment is a way of improving technical capabilities without the need for trainer feedback. It can identify areas for improvement and promote professional medical development. The aim of this review was to identify whether selfassessment is an accurate form of technical skills appraisal in general surgery. Methods The PubMed, MEDLINE®, Embase™ and Cochrane databases were searched for studies assessing the reliability of self-assessment of technical skills in general surgery. For each study, we recorded the skills assessed and the evaluation methods used. Common endpoints between studies were compared to provide recommendations based on the levels of evidence. Results Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria from 22,292 initial papers. There was no level 1 evidence published. All papers compared the correlation between self-appraisal versus an expert score but differed in the technical skills assessment and the evaluation tools used. The accuracy of self-assessment improved with increasing experience (level 2 recommendation), age (level 3 recommendation) and the use of video playback (level 3 recommendation). Accuracy was reduced by stressful learning environments (level 2 recommendation), lack of familiarity with assessment tools (level 3 recommendation) and in advanced surgical procedures (level 3 recommendation). Conclusions Evidence exists to support the reliability of self-assessment of technical skills in general surgery. Several variables have been shown to affect the accuracy of self-assessment of technical skills. Future work should focus on evaluating the reliability of self-assessment during live operating procedures.

Surgical management of postpartum haemorrhage: survey of French obstetricians

“…Because our research found no validated questionnaire about the topic of our survey in the literature, we — that is, all the co-authors — designed our own questionnaire, which was approved by CEROG. Evidence supports the reliability of self-assessment of technical skills in surgery 7 .…”

Emotional Intelligence Predicts Accurate Self-Assessment of Surgical Quality: A Pilot Study

“…29 As outlined previously, factors that have been shown to improve the accuracy of self-assessment include reducing the stress of the learning environment and the use of video playback. 10 These factors can be addressed through the use of simulation training. Indeed, use of a laparoscopic simulator and video playback are two strengths of this study.…”

“…Playback as opposed to immediate posttask self-assessment has been demonstrated as superior. 10 The seven domains of the global rating scale are respect for tissue, time and motion, instrument handling, knowledge of instruments, flow of operation, use of assistants, and knowledge of the specific procedure. Each domain is scored from a minimum of one to a maximum of five points.…”

“…In addition, they found that accuracy was reduced with a stressful learning environment, lack of familiarity with assessment tools, and in advanced surgical procedures. 10 Previous studies have examined the predictive value of a range of attributes that may influence surgical performance, namely, visual spatial ability, psychomotor aptitude, academic achievement, and video games. A systematic review by Maan et al (2012) revealed that high-level visual spatial ability and greater psychomotor aptitude have the greatest predictive value with regards to surgical performance and skill acquisition.…”

Associations between intraoperative factors and surgeons’ self-assessed operative satisfaction

“…Center for Minimally Invasive Urological Surgery, Athens Medical Center, Athens, Greece Diverging reports exist regarding the surgeons' self-assessed satisfaction with a surgical procedure and possible relation to intraoperative factors or outcome measures. Few studies have been conducted on the subject but a recent review concluded that surgeons could be capable of evaluating their own technical skills accurately even though variations between self-and external assessments have been reported [1]. On the contrary, others have reported that surgeons had a limited ability to accurately assess their surgical performance, compared with external assessment [2,3].…”