Towards safer laparoscopic surgery: Training and assessment of surgical skills and equipment handling

The objective of this thesis is to improve laparoscopic surgical skills training and assessment with an emphasis on equipment-related safety and competence. A comparison was made between a hospital and a petrochemical company and showed that employees at the petrochemical company were trained and certified in equipment handling much more structurally than in the hospital. A national survey revealed that in Dutch hospitals training with operating equipment is more voluntary than obligatory and usually only takes place on introduction of a new device. As a possible solution to improve training with operating equipment, two online interactive simulation modules for operating equipment were developed to train both theoretical and practical competence. The research in this thesis showed that users who trained with the modules made only half the amount of the mistakes in operating the equipment compared to users who did not train with the modules.Biomechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin