Interventions That Affect Resident Performance on the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination: A Systematic Review

Predictors of failure in the Advanced Trauma Life Support course

“…A recent Cochrane review demonstrated that structured reading programs and mandatory remedial programs improved the American Board of Surgery In-service Training Examination performance. 15 Extrapolation of these findings suggests that for participants who score below a certain threshold on the pretest, additional study, for example, in the form of individually structured reading programs or remedial teaching sessions, may improve their performance on the formal test. This study was not designed to identify what the pretest cutoff should be.…”

Using an Accountability Program to Improve Psychiatry Resident Scores on In-Service Examinations

“…In surgery, where ITE scores are used in promotion and fellowship decisions, 26 3 studies have assessed the impact of a mandatory remediation program, [27][28][29] with 1 showing statistically significant improvement. 29 One study in family medicine involved mandatory ITE remediation but showed no statistically significant score improvement.…”

Curiosity and independent reading among residents

“…In the era of duty‐hour limitations, resident self‐directed learning has become increasingly important. Several types of resident reading interventions have been implemented, and each seems to have had a different effect on curiosity in the learner. By understanding curiosity and its effect on self‐directed learning, residency programmes can tailor their reading interventions to different types of learners and understand the limitations of these interventions.…”

“…In a second type of intervention, learners were provided with assigned reading and optional examinations . In one study, residents completed an average of 47 per cent of the reading, and the improvement in ABSITE scores correlated highly with reading effort for individual residents .…”

“…The final type of independent reading intervention includes the provision of optional reading material alone, without assigned multiple‐choice questions. Optional curricula have been trialled in the surgical literature with no improvement in ABSITE scores . In contrast, an internal medicine (IM) intervention used case‐based online modules on a variety of topics to teach out‐patient medicine.…”