The Resident Report Card: A Tool for Operative Feedback and Evaluation of Technical Skills

Background: Competency-based medical education surgical curriculums will require frequent, recorded trainee performance evaluations. It is our hypothesis that written feedback after each operation can be used to chart surgical progress, can identify underperforming trainees, and will prove beneficial for resident learning.

Methods: The resident report card (RRC) is an online, easy-to-use evaluation tool designed to facilitate the creation and distribution of resident technical assessments. RRC data were collected from urologic trainees and analyzed using ANOVA and post hoc testing to confirm our hypothesis. A standardized survey was sent to residents, gauging their views on the RRC.

Results: Over a 5-y period, 958 RRCs with the resident listed as the primary operator were collected across 29 different procedures. Resident cohort and individual performance scores stratified by postgraduate year (PGY) were shown to significantly improve when all procedures (cohort, 6.5 ± 1.9 [PGY-1] to 9.1 ± 1.0 [PGY-5]; individual [resident M], 8.8 ± 1.8 [PGY-3] to 9.4 ± 0.7 [PGY-5], P < 0.01) and specific procedures (laparoscopic donor nephrectomy: cohort, 7.3 ± 1.3 [PGY-3] to 8.9 ± 1.0 [PGY-5]; individual [resident I], 7.2 ± 1.3 [PGY-3] to 9.5 ± 0.6 [PGY-5], P < 0.01) were analyzed. Individual residents were able to be compared to their own peer group and to the average scores across all evaluated residents. Surveyed residents were overwhelmingly positive about the RRC.

Conclusions: The RRC adds further evidence to the fact that standardized, formative, and timely assessment can capture trainee performance over time and against comparator cohorts in an acceptable format to residents and academic training programs.