Multi-institutional Validation of a Vaginal Hysterectomy Simulation Model for Resident Training

Abstract

Study objective: The purpose of the research was to both develop a vaginal hysterectomy model with surgically pertinent anatomic landmarks and assess its validity for simulation training.

Design: A low-cost, reproducible vaginal hysterectomy model with relevant anatomic landmarks for key surgical steps.

Setting: Nine academic and community-based obstetrics and gynecology residency programs.

Participants: One hundred sixty-nine obstetrics and gynecology residents.

Interventions: A vaginal hysterectomy model with surgically pertinent anatomic landmarks was developed and tested for construct validity.

Measurements and main results: Of the 184 available residents, 169 (91%) participated in this study and performed a vaginal hysterectomy procedure on the described model. The validated objective 7-item global rating scale (GRS) and the 13-item task-specific checklist (TSC) were used as tools to assess performance. The median TSC and GRS scores correlated with year of training, prior experience, and trainee confidence. In addition, the TSC scores also correlated with the GRS scores (p <.001) with regard to performance and resident year of training. Receiver Operator Curves for identification of the residents meeting national residency accreditation minimum numbers for vaginal hysterectomy using the GRS and TSC scores had an area under the curve of 0.89 and 0.83, respectively.

Conclusion: This reduced-cost vaginal hysterectomy model offers high construct validity and pertinence for simulation.

Keywords: Model validation; Resident education; Simulation; Surgical skills assessment; Vaginal hysterectomy.