Development of an objective structured assessment of technical skills for obstetric and gynecology residents

Objective: To develop an objective structured assessment for evaluating sur gical skills of obstetrics and gynecology residents and to evaluate the rel iability and validity of the assessment. Methods: A seven-station, objective, structured assessment of technical ski lls was administered to 24 residents. The test included laparoscopic proced ures (port placement, salpingostomy, suturing, vessel ligation) and open ab dominal procedures (hypogastric ligation, repair of enterotomy, salpingo-oo phorectomy.) All surgical tasks were done on pigs. Residents were timed and assessed at each station using three methods of scoring, a task-specific c hecklist, global rating scale, and pass-fail grade. Results: Assessment of construct validity (the ability of the test to discr iminate among residency levels) found significant differences on the checkl ist and the global rating scale by residency level. Reliability indices cal culated with Cronbach's alpha were 0.89 for the global rating scale and 0.8 9-0.95 for the individual skills checklists. Interrater reliability was 0.8 7 for the global rating scale and 0.78-0.98 for the checklists. Conclusion: Objective, structured assessment of technical skills can assess residents' surgical skills with high reliability and validity. These asses sments have possible application for identifying residents who need additio nal training and might provide a mechanism to ensure competence of surgical skills. (Obstet Gynecol 2000;96:146-50. (C) 2000 by The American College o f Obstetricians and Gynecologists.).