A new curriculum for hysteroscopy training as demonstrated by an objective structured assessment of technical skills (OSATS)

Objective The purpose of this study was to develop an effective curriculum to teach hysteroscopy, as well as to develop an objective assessment instrument (OSATS). Study design All 24 residents in our training program attended a 3-hour hysteroscopy curriculum in each of 3 years. Each year after the curriculum, an OSATS was administered consisting of an assembly and operative task. Each task was evaluated with a task-specific checklist and a previously validated global assessment form. Twenty-four residents from an outside institution served as controls. All residents were examined by blinded and unblinded examiners. Results The reliability coefficient was .7857 for the checklist and .9763 for the global scale. Interrater reliability for the checklist was .7478 and ranged from .4222 to .9329 for the global instruments. Evaluation of construct validity revealed that the junior residents at both locations did significantly worse on the checklist and global scale than the senior residents for all 3 years of the study (P< .001). Those residents provided the curriculum did significantly better on both the checklist and the global scale than the resident controls with a mean of 45% versus 63% for the checklist and 18.3 versus 24.9 for the global score. (P = .001 checklist, P = .007 global scale). Conclusion This curriculum is an effective way to impart knowledge and skill in the assembly and use of the operative hysteroscope. The checklist developed for this OSATS has excellent reliability and construct validity