Development of a comprehensive vascular skills assessment for surgical trainees

BACKGROUND: Although vascular skills are important to general surgeons, vascular surgery has become a separate specialty, and therefore, there may be an erosion of vascular skills acquired by general surgical trainees. The purpose of this Study was to develop a reliable and valid comprehensive vascular skills assessment (CVSA) of both knowledge and technical skills. METHODS: Twenly-four of 38 general Surgical residents at the University of British Columbia completed a two-part CVSA consisting of a written examination and a series of 4 technical stations in a skills laboratory. Technical performance was rated using validated scales. RESULTS: The mean overall CVSA score was 50%. The CVSA demonstrated construct validity, with improvement in scores with increasing postgraduate year level (P =.01). The overall reliability (Cronbach's alpha) was .90. CONCLUSIONS: The CVSA developed in this study is a comprehensive assessment of vascular skills that is both valid and reliable. It offers an objective and feasible assessment of general surgical trainees' vascular skills, (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.