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. 2017 Jun;9(3):324-329.
doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-16-00517.1.

Passing a Technical Skills Examination in the First Year of Surgical Residency Can Predict Future Performance

Sandra de Montbrun, Marisa Louridas, Teodor Grantcharov

Passing a Technical Skills Examination in the First Year of Surgical Residency Can Predict Future Performance

Sandra de Montbrun et al. J Grad Med Educ. 2017 Jun.

Abstract

Background: The ability of an assessment to predict performance would be of major benefit to residency programs, allowing for early identification of residents at risk.

Objective: We sought to establish whether passing the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) examination in postgraduate year 1 (PGY-1) predicts future performance.

Methods: Between 2002 and 2012, 133 PGY-1 surgery residents at the University of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) completed an 8-station, simulated OSATS examination as a component of training. With recently set passing scores, residents were assigned a pass/fail status using 3 standards setting methods (contrasting groups, borderline group, and borderline regression). Future in-training performance was compared between residents who had passed and those who failed the OSATS, using in-training evaluation reports from resident files. A Mann-Whitney U test compared performance among groups at PGY-2 and PGY-4 levels.

Results: Residents who passed the OSATS examination outperformed those who failed, when compared during PGY-2 across all 3 standard setting methodologies (P < .05). During PGY-4, only the contrasting groups method showed a significant difference (P < .05).

Conclusions: We found that PGY-1 surgical resident pass/fail status on a technical skills examination was associated with future performance on in-training evaluation reports in later years. This provides validity evidence for the current PGY-1 pass/fail score, and suggests that this technical skills examination may be used to predict performance and to identify residents who require remediation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: The authors declare they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Comparing Technical Skills Scores at Postgraduate Year 2 (PGY-2) and PGY-4 Levels Between Residents Who Passed and Failed the OSATS Examination During PGY-1 Note: Determined with (a) a contrasting groups method; (b) a borderline group method; and (c) a borderline regression method.
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