Journal – World journal of surgery
Publication date – Mar – 2018
Authors – McCullough, M; Campbell, A; Siu, A; Durnwald, L; Kumar, S; Magee, WP; Swanson, J
Keywords – Cleft lip, Competency, education
Open access – Yes
Speciality – Maxillofacial and oral surgery, Plastic surgery
World region Central America, Eastern Africa, Northern America
Country: Guatemala, Malawi, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay
Language – English
Submitted to the One Surgery Index on July 18, 2018 at 12:00 am
Abstract:

BACKGROUND:
The unmet burden of surgical disease represents a major global health concern, and a lack of trained providers is a critical component of the inadequacy of surgical care worldwide. Competency-based training has been advanced in high-income countries, improving technical skills and decreasing training time, but it is poorly understood how this model might be applied to low- and middle-income countries. We describe the development of a competency-based program to accelerate specialty training of in-country providers in cleft surgery techniques.

METHODS:
The program was designed and piloted among eight trainees at five international cleft lip and palate surgical mission sites in Latin America and Africa. A competency-based evaluation form, designed for the program, was utilized to grade general technical and procedure-specific competencies, and pre- and post-training scores were analyzed using a paired t test.

RESULTS:
Trainees demonstrated improvement in average procedure-specific competency scores for both lip repairs (60.4-71.0%, p < 0.01) and palate (50.6-66.0%, p < 0.01). General technical competency scores also improved (63.6-72.0%, p < 0.01). Among the procedural competencies assessed, surgical markings showed the greatest improvement (19.0 and 22.8% for lip and palate, respectively), followed by nasal floor/mucosal approximation (15.0%) and hard palate dissection (17.1%).

CONCLUSION:
Surgical delivery models in LMICs are varied, and trade-offs often exist between goals of case throughput, quality and training. Pilot program results show that procedure-specific and general technical competencies can be improved over a relatively short time and demonstrate the feasibility of incorporating such a training program into surgical outreach missions.

OSI Number – 10131
PMID – 28879542

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