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BACKGROUND: In accordance with new mandates implemented by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education, reliance on operative case logs as demonstration of residents' surgical competence will no longer be adequate. We describe the implementation of a comprehensive, year-round, mandatory skills laboratory curriculum as an integral component of our urology residency training program. STUDY DESIGN: We developed eight laboratory practicums using primarily nonhuman models: basic endoscopy, advanced endoscopy, ureteroscopy, percutaneous renal surgery, basic laparoscopy, advanced laparoscopy, urologic use of the gastrointestinal tract, and cadaveric pelvic dissection. RESULTS: Anonymous evaluations submitted by all training session participants indicate that acquisition of surgical skills is facilitated through participation in laboratory practicums. An incremental progression in proficiency was observed by all of the instructors and students who participated. There was a high degree of satisfaction with model fidelity and the value of technical experience gained. CONCLUSIONS: Our urologic surgery skills laboratory curriculum is an effective means of skills acquisition and maintenance for a wide variety of urologic techniques, including complex endourologic procedures. Patient care can safely be of secondary importance with respect to trainee experience in a low-stress environment that provides an opportunity for supervised repetitive performance of essential technical skills. We describe effective models, with high fidelity-to-cost ratio, that incorporate laboratory-based surgical skills training and evaluation into urology residency programs, with the aim of Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education competency guideline compliance.
Hammond et al. (Tue,) studied this question.