Design and Evaluation of the Preparation Course for New Entrant Assistants on the Awareness and Skills of Newly Arrived Surgery Resident

Background: Beginning of assistance course is associated with anxiety. This due to unfamiliarity with theassistance and insufficient training, knowledge, and required skills. The aims of this study were to design,implement and evaluate the effects of a period of 1-month as preparation course for new entrant assistants onthe awareness and skills of newly arrived residents.Methods: 12 newly arrived assistant student were divided into two equal groups. Some steps such asunderstanding the environment and legislation, education about an emergency, and dealing with patients andalso, suturing, chest tube insertion, and cut down skills were passed by the first group before starting theassistance course. The second group was entered in the assistance course without this preparation course. Forperformance evaluation and comparison of these two groups, four questionnaires were created and filledconsequently before the entrance, at the end of the 2nd month, based on direct observation of procedural skills(DOPS) exam, and at the end of 6th month.Results: There were no significant differences between two groups at the beginning of the study (P < 0.05). Atthe end of the 2nd month, the first group had better performance in understanding the environment, patientexamination, diagnosis and emergency skills in comparison to the second group (P < 0.05). Based on theDOPS score, the first group had significantly better performance (P < 0.05) except in performing cut-down(P > 0.05). Also procedure, the first group was better than the second group just in the consensus of theprocedure (P < 0.05). Finally, at the end of the 6th month, the difference between two groups was becominglower, and supervisors believed that after additional 3 months, this difference would be lost.Conclusions: Conducting a 1-month period of preparation for new entrant assistants can be useful inincreasing awareness, understanding the environment, performance, the knowledge of the theory and how todeal with patients as well as increase their skills in performing the expected procedures.© 2015 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.Citation: Paydar Sh, Amini M, Bananzadeh A, Tahmasebi S, Akrami M, Rahimi M, et al. Design andEvaluation of the Preparation Course for New Entrant Assistants on the Awareness and Skills ofNewly Arrived Surgery Resident. Acad J Surg, 2015; 2(3-4): 52-6.