Effect of the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery Curriculum on Skills of Operating Room Technology Students: An Interventional Study

Background: In a laparoscopic surgery team, a surgical technologist as a skillful assistant surgeon is responsible for camera navi- gation and peg transfer. Objectives: We assessed the effect of the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery curriculum on improving the skills of surgical tech- nology students in camera navigation, pattern cutting, and peg transfer. Methods: A study was conducted on 30 surgical technology students at the Iran University of Medical Sciences based on Kern’s six- step model. After assessing the needs and defining the educational goals, the course content was determined. Afterward, students were trained in a simulation-based learning environment. Then, in the evaluation stage, using the standard task completion time (TCT) tool, their competence in performing the three skills was evaluated. The results of the first comprehensive attempt to perform each skill were recorded as the pretest, and the results of the sixth and 10th repetitions were recorded as the posttest. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance with duplicate data. Results: The TCT score improved in this study. The time of camera navigation decreased from 92.14 to 56.42 s, pattern cutting from 186.07 to 118.21 s, and peg transfer from 93.03 to 54.10 s. Conclusions: This study showed that the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery curriculum improved the surgical technologists’ competence in performing triple skills essential for performing laparoscopic surgeries. Thus, this learning method could play an essential role in laparoscopic surgery.