Design and Evaluation of the " Preparation Course for New Entrant Assistants" on the Awareness and Skills of Newly Arrived Surgery Resident

Beginning of assistance course is associated with anxiety. This due to unfamiliarity with the assistance and insufficient training, knowledge, and required skills. The aims of this study were to design, implement and evaluate the effects of a period of 1-month as “preparation course for new entrant assistants” on the awareness and skills of newly arrived residents. 12 newly arrived assistant student were divided into two equal groups. Some steps such as understanding the environment and legislation, education about an emergency, and dealing with patients and also, suturing, chest tube insertion, and cut down skills were passed by the first group before starting the assistance course. The second group was entered in the assistance course without this preparation course. For performance evaluation and comparison of these two groups, four questionnaires were created and filled consequently before the entrance, at the end of the 2nd month, based on direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) exam, and at the end of 6th month. There were no significant differences between two groups at the beginning of the study (P < 0.05). At the end of the 2nd month, the first group had better performance in understanding the environment, patient examination, diagnosis and emergency skills in comparison to the second group (P < 0.05). Based on the DOPS score, the first group had significantly better performance (P < 0.05) except in performing cut-down (P > 0.05). Also procedure, the first group was better than the second group just in the consensus of the procedure (P < 0.05). Finally, at the end of the 6th month, the difference between two groups was becoming lower, and supervisors believed that after additional 3 months, this difference would be lost. Conducting a 1-month period of preparation for new entrant assistants can be useful in increasing awareness, understanding the environment, performance, the knowledge of the theory and how to deal with patients as well as increase their skills in performing the expected procedures.