Establishing the trainee perspective on ultrasound and laparoscopy training in teaching hospitals

Dr Esther Oluseyi Bamigboye

EKHUFT, Ashford, United Kingdom

Abstract

Objective: 

To establish the current training in basic ultrasound and basic laparoscopy provided by local teaching hospitals in a geographical region within a UK deanery for Obstetrics and Gynaecology trainees and to establish how trainees perceive their training.  

Design: 

A survey questionnaire was created which focused on the trainee’s perspectives of their current skills in ultrasound and laparoscopy, and their perception of what and how training is provided at a local level. This survey is part of a larger quality improvement project to create a standardised, reproducible and cost-effective training curriculum which can be implemented at any teaching hospital which trains Obstetrics and Gynaecology trainees.

Method: 

A survey was sent out via email to trainees at all levels of training in a geographic region within a UK deanery using google forms. The data was analysed using google forms.

Results 

100% of respondents said there is no formal training in laparoscopy, 12.5% said they had formal ultrasound training in their unit. Some obstacles to training, as perceived by trainees, included lack of dedicated faculty for inhouse training for laparoscopy (70.6%) and ultrasound (80%), and no mandatory requirement for teaching hospitals to have a training programme for laparoscopy (70.6%) and ultrasound (73.3%).

 Conclusions: 

This survey concluded that trainees feel that there is little to no local training in local teaching hospitals. This raises the question of whether a standardised level of basic training in ultrasound and laparoscopy in teaching hospitals should be implemented irrespective of location. The limitation of this study was that it only sampled a small region within a deanery.

 

Future research includes surveying a greater number of trainees, surveying consultants to gain their perspective on the issue, establishing what facilities are available to teaching hospitals to facilitate trainees' skills development and creating a pilot basic training programme for Obstetrics and Gynaecology trainees which can be run in any teaching hospitals which have an ultrasound machine and clinicians trained in basic laparoscopy.