Design of a Laparoscopic Curriculum for Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents

Abstract

PROBLEM: The American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) announced in January, 2018 it is requiring completion of the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) program as prerequisite for board certification for residents graduating after May, 2020. Currently, our residency program has no formalized laparoscopic curriculum and has never required residents to participate in the FLS program. INTERVENTION: Needs assessment was performed to survey faculty in the residency program regarding residents’ current skill levels and faculty perspectives of level-appropriate laparoscopic skills by training year. A comprehensive laparoscopic curriculum was designed to support resident progression through different competency milestones required to ultimately be able to perform laparoscopic hysterectomies as the surgeon. The laparoscopic curriculum addresses a parallel group of requirements designed to assist residents in successful completion of the FLS curriculum. CONTEXT: The laparoscopic curriculum was designed in the context of an academically-based obstetrics and gynecology residency program. The residency program has 9 residents a year who rotate at 5 different clinical sites and work with over 50 faculty who perform laparoscopic procedures. OUTCOMES/LESSONS LEARNED: The curriculum will be implemented in July 2019 with the new academic year. The curriculum will be assessed in several ways: formal testing of residents with FLS skills by the program administration, time takes resident to progress through the competency milestones for laparoscopy, the FLS pass rate, and scores of our residents. Main lesson learned through the design process was how to manage the varying resident and faculty expectations for surgical skills training.