Emotional Intelligence Predicts Accurate Self-Assessment of Surgical Quality: A Pilot Study

Self-assessment is fundamental in surgical training. Accuracy of self-assessment is superior with greater age, experience, and the use of video playback. Presently, there is scarce evidence in the literature regarding predictors for a surgical trainee's aptitude for self-assessment. The objecti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of surgical research 2020-01, Vol.245, p.383-389
Main Authors: Nayar, Sandeep K., Musto, Liam, Fernandes, Roland, Bharathan, Rasiah
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Appendectomy
Aptitude Tests
Clinical Competence
Emotional Intelligence
Female
General Surgery - education
General Surgery - standards
Humans
Laparoscopic surgery
Laparoscopy
Male
Pilot Projects
Self-Assessment
Spatial Processing
Surgical training
Virtual reality simulation
Young Adult
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Summary:Self-assessment is fundamental in surgical training. Accuracy of self-assessment is superior with greater age, experience, and the use of video playback. Presently, there is scarce evidence in the literature regarding predictors for a surgical trainee's aptitude for self-assessment. The objective of this study was to investigate whether emotional intelligence or visual-spatial aptitude can predict effective self-assessment among novice surgeons performing laparoscopic appendectomy (LA). Eighteen novice trainees performed a simulated LA, and two aptitude measures were evaluated: (1) emotional intelligence questionnaire and (2) visual spatial ability test. Self-assessment of their performance was conducted using the Objective Assessment of Surgical and Technical Skills global rating scale and ranking five subtasks of the procedure in order of quality of performance after watching a playback of their LA. Two blinded experts (senior consultant surgeons, performed >100 LAs) assessed surgical quality using the same scoring system. Candidates were ranked into higher and lower aptitude groups for the two aptitude measures. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was calculated to identify if either of the two groups demonstrated greater agreement between self and expert assessment in relation to the two aptitude measures. Participants with a higher degree of emotional intelligence demonstrated significant agreement with expert assessment (r = 0.73, P = 0.031). Emotional intelligence can predict better self-assessment of surgical quality after performing a simulated LA. This may facilitate early identification of individuals who might require mentoring or guidance with self-assessment as well as contribute to selection criteria.
ISSN:0022-4804
1095-8673
DOI:10.1016/j.jss.2019.07.051