Teaching and Evaluating Surgical Skills, An Issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics

Individuals who train surgeons need to know how to effectively teach and evaluate surgical skills in trainees in order to produce sugeons that can provide excellent surgical care. In the past, surgery has been taught in a see one, do one, teach one, paradigm, which is only effective with high surgical volumes unavailable to todays trainees. Additionally, medicolegal and economic pressures of today dictate that learning skills be conducted, at least in part, outside of the operating room. Effective training requires a surgical skills curriculum encorporating the use of models, mental imagery as well as more traditional didactic sessions. This issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America will provide the scaffolding to develop and implement a surgical skills curriculum and covers the following topics:: Teaching pelvic anatomy, the use of computers and virtual reality, OSATS and surgical labs, evaluating surgical competency, the use of mental imagery in surgical skills teaching, as well as teaching and evaluating ultrasound skills.