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Identifying barriers to resident robotic console time in a general surgery residency through a targeted needs assessment

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Abstract

Robotic-assisted general surgery is experiencing exponential growth. Despite our institution’s high volume, residents often graduate with inadequate console experience. Our aim was to identify the educational needs of residents and perceived barriers to residents’ console time from both attendings and residents. Separate surveys were created and distributed to robotic surgery faculty and general surgery residents at our institution. Questions were a variety of modalities and focused on the robotic surgery experience at our institution, including barriers to resident console time from both attending surgeon and resident perspectives. Although residents' interest in robotic surgery exceeded that of open and laparoscopic surgery, confidence in their robotic skills was low compared to the other modalities. The top barriers to participating in robotic cases according to residents included minimal or no previous console time with the attending, lack of simulator time, and being required to perform bedside assistant duties. Faculty reported resident preparedness, prior robotic skill demonstration, simulator time, case complexity, and their own confidence as significant factors influencing resident console time. Using these results, we concluded that the design and implementation of a formal robotic surgery curriculum should incorporate simulation-based opportunities for residents to practice their skills, improve confidence, and increase console experience. In addition, simulation opportunities for faculty should also be considered to allow for improvement and maintenance of robotic surgical skills.

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Acknowledgements

The work reported in this publication represents part of the first author’s scholarly activities during his tenure as a Healthcare Simulation Fellow, Applebaum Simulation Learning Institute, Corewell Health East William Beaumont University Hospital. The authors would like to acknowledge the Consortium of American College of Surgeons Accredited Education Institutes for supporting the Healthcare Simulation Fellowship Program.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Corewell Health East-William Beaumont University Hospital, Royal Oak, MI, USA

    Bradley Perry, Kathryn Howard, Nathan M. Novotny, Anthony Iacco, Felicia Ivascu & Ngan Nguyen

  2. Department of Foundational Medical Studies and Department of Surgery, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, O’Dowd Hall, Room 454, 586 Pioneer Drive, Rochester, MI, 48309, USA

    Ngan Nguyen

Authors
  1. Bradley Perry
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  2. Kathryn Howard
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  3. Nathan M. Novotny
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  4. Anthony Iacco
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  5. Felicia Ivascu
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  6. Ngan Nguyen
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Contributions

BP, NNo, and NNg wrote the main manuscript text and prepared all figures. KH, AI, and FI created the needs assessment survey. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ngan Nguyen.

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All authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Perry, B., Howard, K., Novotny, N.M. et al. Identifying barriers to resident robotic console time in a general surgery residency through a targeted needs assessment. J Robotic Surg 17, 2783–2789 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-023-01711-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-023-01711-x

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