Beliefs and values about intra-operative teaching and learning: a case study of surgical teachers and trainees

Abstract

Surgeons require advanced psychomotor skills, critical decision-making and teamwork skills. Much of surgical skills training involve progressive trainee participation in supervised operations where case variability, operating team interaction and environment affect learning, while surgical teachers face the key challenge of ensuring patient safety. Using a theoretical framework of situated learning including cognitive apprenticeship, we explored teachers’ and trainees’ beliefs and values about intra-operative training and reasons for any differences. A qualitative case study method was used where five teacher-trainee pairs participating in an observed teaching operation were separately inter..