Mental Training in Surgical Education

What stress coping strategies are surgeons relying upon during surgery?

“…In surgery, stress management training has mainly focused on mental imagery and has shown promising results. 7,8 Stress management and performance enhancement strategies, however, go beyond mental imagery and may include interventions such as goal setting, energy management, attention management, refocusing strategies, and performance routines. Our group has recently engaged in the development of a comprehensive mental skills curriculum that uses all these strategies; we aim to demonstrate the curriculum's effectiveness in enhancing surgical performance, as has been the case in the aforementioned disciplines.…”

“…Some promising studies have already started to emerge in the surgical literature to this effect. 7,8 The objective of this study was to survey surgeons to determine (1) sources of intraoperative stress, (2) coping strategies used, (3) impact of stress on surgical outcomes, and (4) interest for formal training in stress management.…”

Learning Basic Laparoscopic Skills: A Randomized Controlled Study Comparing Box Trainer, Virtual Reality Simulator, and Mental Training

“…One such study demonstrated that additional mental preparation is more effective than additional practical training or no additional training in laparoscopic cholecystectomy in surgeons with limited experience. 17 Mental training used as sole method in our study showed poor results. It is not here to replace skills training.…”

“…15 The aim of our study was to determine the learning outcomes and effectiveness of different methods of training in acquiring a basic laparoscopic skill and comparing these methods. We included mental training that has been proven to enhance performance in sports 16 and explored in surgical training, 17 although not recommended as a primary method. We believe this is the first such randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness on learning outcomes of 3 different MIS training techniques: BT, VRS, and MT.…”

Simulator training improves practical skills in therapeutic GI endoscopy: results from a randomized, blinded, controlled study

“…Checklist scores and the GS form part of the objective structured assessment of technical skill format, which has previously been shown to be reliable and valid for use in assessment of surgical training. 17,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] A checklist approach has also been successfully used in the assessment of hemostasis during simulated endoscopy. 13 The polypectomy checklist has been previously validated, 44 and the other checklists were created based on this format by the authors, but have not been validated individually.…”