Resident Training in Robotic Assisted Gynecologic Surgery

Robotic surgery is one the greatest advances in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery since 2005. The educational concern is how to teach physicians in-training. Currently, most physicians learn this technique through animal or post-graduate simulation courses. There are no established training programs for residents. A longitudinally designed training course was developed to incorporate robotic surgery into the gynecologic surgical portion of the residency. All resident year levels were trained. The training curriculum included knowledge, basic skills, experience, and performance. Evaluation was performed throughout the training. Residents underwent basic skill training related to set up, port placement, docking, camera control, dexterity, needle manipulation and suturing. All residents showed improvement from onset to four weeks later in evaluated basic skills. Senior residents were able to perform fine tasks of needle manipulation and suturing faster with more precision than junior residents. Senior residents performed supervised robotic cases during their gynecologic surgical rotation