How much time do surgical residents need to learn operative surgery?

Background We calculated the time a resident spent to acquire the average operative experience before mandated duty hours, to generate a standard for curriculum redesign. Methods By using data from 2002 to 2003 furnished by the Residency Review Committee for Surgery, and the operation times of attending surgeons in a hospital consortium, the time devoted to operative surgery over 5 years of training were calculated. Results An average of 2753 hours or 14.3% of 19,200 hours (5 years of 80-hour work weeks) were spent as a chief surgeon, 272 hours as an assistant, and another 938 hours for immediate preoperative and postoperative attendance. The average total time for operative training was 3963 hours or 20.6% of 5 years of 80-hour weeks (16.5 h/wk). Conclusions The database is useful for redesigning the surgical curriculum for the mandated duty hours. It also may be used to determine rapidly if a program currently is providing sufficient time for operative surgery.