Surgical Rehabilitation for Research Residents: A Pilot Program to Offset Surgical Skill Decay

Objective: Select general surgery residents in the surgeon-scientist pipeline dedicate time away from clinical residency to conduct research. However, these research residents (RR) are vulnerable to operative skill decay. The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of implementation and impact of an organized intervention designed to combat skill decay experienced by RR.

Design: RR were enrolled in a pilot Surgical Rehabilitation Program (SRP). The SRP is comprised of 12 cadaver-based simulation sessions and supplemented with Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery-based simulation workouts. The RR were integrated with the clinical residents (CR) during the cadaver sessions and were subsequently performance tested, surveyed, and interviewed.

Setting: One academic general surgery residency program graduating 8 chief residents yearly in New York.

Participants: General surgery CR and residents on dedicated research years.

Results: Data were collected for all local RR (n = 8) and 77% (n = 37) of CR. Local RR conducted research within the same health system that sponsors the residency. RR experienced gaps in training ranging from 2 to 4 years. All RR were permitted to moonlight on surgical services, however performed 0 operations and only 0.88 procedures on average per shift. Although RR performed similarly to level-matched CR on basic laparoscopic tasks, they required significantly more time on laparoscopic suturing-based skills than CR (p < 0.001). RR had significantly lower confidence levels precadaver sessions but gained confidence postcadaver sessions (p < 0.05), whereas CR confidence was unchanged. Regarding the SRP, qualitative interviews revealed major themes emphasizing the integration of RR, exposure to CR and faculty, technical skill development, maintenance of surgical know-how, and improved confidence for RR.

Conclusions: The implementation of such structured interventions, like our SRP, aimed at supporting RR over gap years is essential to help residents maintain skills and confidence needed to achieve their goals of becoming surgeon scientists.