Abstract
BackgroundMental practice, the cognitive rehearsal of a task in the absence of overt physical movement, has been successfully used in teaching complex psychomotor tasks including sports and music, and recently, surgical skills.The objectives of this study were, 1) To develop and evaluate a mental practice protocol for mastoidectomy 2) To assess the immediate impact of mental practice on a mastoidectomy surgical task among senior Otolaryngology─Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS) residents.MethodThree expert surgeons were interviewed using verbal protocol analysis to develop a mastoidectomy mental practice script. Twelve senior Residents from Canadian training programs were randomized into two groups. All Residents were video-recorded performing a baseline mastoidectomy in a temporal bone lab. The intervention group received mental practice training, while the control group undertook self-directed textbook study. All subjects were then video-recorded performing a second mastoidectomy. Changes in pre- and post-test scores using validated expert ratings, the Task Specific Evaluation of Mastoidectomy and the Global Evaluation of Mastoidectomy, were statistically analyzed.ResultsA mental practice script was successfully developed based on interviews of three expert surgeon-educators. Task Specific Evaluation and Global Evaluation scores increased in both the mental practice and textbook study groups; there was no significant difference between the two groups in the change in scores post-intervention. There was a high and statistically signficant correlation between evaluators on the outcome measures.ConclusionsWe were not able to demonstrate a significant difference for the benefits of mental practice in mastoidectomy, possibly due to the sample size. However, mental practice is a surgical education tool which is portable, accessible, inexpensive and safe.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40463-016-0162-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Mental practice, the cognitive rehearsal of a task in the absence of overt physical movement, has been successfully used in teaching complex psychomotor tasks including sports and music, and recently, surgical skills
Task Specific Evaluation and Global Evaluation scores increased in both the mental practice and textbook study groups; there was no significant difference between the two groups in the change in scores post-intervention
We were not able to demonstrate a significant difference for the benefits of mental practice in mastoidectomy, possibly due to the sample size
Summary
The cognitive rehearsal of a task in the absence of overt physical movement, has been successfully used in teaching complex psychomotor tasks including sports and music, and recently, surgical skills. Current trends in surgical education have demonstrated superior outcomes among Residents who engage in learning activities such as computer-based video training and the use of simulators [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11] While these have expedited the Conlin et al Journal of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery (2016) 45:46 rate of acquisition of surgical skills, they are procedurespecific, expensive and often difficult to access. Meta-analyses have indicated that mental practice is effective for all types of tasks, but is most effective for tasks that have considerable cognitive components [12, 17]
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