Comparison of faculty versus structured peer-feedback for acquisitions of basic and intermediate-level surgical skills.

Abstract

PURPOSE\nVideo feedback and faculty feedback has been shown to improve surgical performance; however, consistent access to faculty is challenging. We studied the utility of structured peer-feedback (PF) compared to faculty-feedback (FF) during acquisition of basic and intermediate surgical skills.\n\n\nMETHODOLOGY\nTwo randomized non-inferiority trials were conducted with 1st (n\u202f=\u202f30) and 2nd year (n\u202f=\u202f29) medical students learning skin-lesion excision and closure (S), and single-layer hand-sewn bowel anastomosis (B), respectively. Five attempts were performed. PF participants used an Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills tool to guide feedback. Blinded raters assessed video-recorded performance, time and Integrity of the completed task were also assessed.\n\n\nRESULTS\nFor both tasks performance by PF was comparable to FF (P\u202f=\u202f0.111). Both groups improved significantly: performance (B:P\u202f<\u202f0.0001, S:P\u202f=\u202f0.035), time (B:P\u202f=\u202f0.043, S:P\u202f<\u202f0.0001) and integrity (B:P\u202f<\u202f0.0001, S:P\u202f<\u202f0.032).\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nStructured peer-feedback is equivalent to faculty-feedback in the acquisition of basic and intermediate surgical skills, giving students freedom to practice independently.