Why the study?
Are there differences in psychomotor skills between surgical trainees and other medical specialists?
Are there differences in psychomotor skills between surgical trainees and other medical specialists?
There are no significant psychomotor differences between male surgical trainees and other male medical specialists, suggesting self-selection based on such skills is unlikely.
Psychomotor differences on maze testing between specialties should not alter trainee selection; leaves open whether such tests predict operative performance.
Forty-eight trainees in surgery, psychiatry, anaesthetics and medicine underwent objective testing of manual dexterity (Mandex test), hand-eye coordination (Gibson spiral maze test) and visuospatial ability (embedded figures task). Surgical trainees performed significantly more quickly on the spiral maze test than psychiatrists (P = 0.03) but made more errors (P = 0.02). Combining male and female subjects across all groups, women were significantly more accurate than men. When men only were compared no psychomotor differences between specialty groups could be demonstrated. There were no differences in visuospatial ability by either sex or specialty. Self-selection on the basis of such skill is therefore unlikely.
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Harris et al. (1994) studied this question.
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