Medical Student, MS2 SUNY Upstate Medical Univetsity Syracuse, New York
Educational Objective: At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants should be able to understand the impact surgical centers have on residency training.
Objectives: An increasing number of surgeries that were previously carried out in an academic hospital setting are now being performed at ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs). The extent to which this trend has affected surgical residency training, specifically in otolaryngology, has not been documented. Our objective is to determine if surgical training is impacted by the integration of ENT residents into ambulatory surgical settings. We hope to better understand the differences in the experience of otolaryngology residents at ASCs versus hospital operating rooms to determine whether this national trend has any significant impact on resident training.
Study Design: Cohort study.
Methods: 15 ENT surgical residents between PGY 2 and PGY 4 completed self-reported evaluations for various inpatient and outpatient procedures at our institution. The total number of surgical cases, the specific type of procedure, the role of the surgical resident, and the percentage of active operating time in that designated role were analyzed.
Results: Preliminary data suggests a trend towards increased resident operating time in the ambulatory setting, with the additional benefit of increased daily case volume. When comparing high volume cases (tonsillectomy/adenectomy, and functional endoscopic sinus surgery), residents report operating more in surgery centers.
Conclusions: The implementation of ASCs in resident training programs appears to offer an excellent means for residents to increase their surgical experience. With the increased volume of cases at surgical centers, residents are given more surgical training compared to academic hospital operating rooms alone.