Colonoscopy education for surgical residents in Korea: a national survey of Korean Surgical Skill Study Group

PURPOSE: A standardized colonoscopy training program surgical residents is still unestablished. The aim of this study was to assess the current status of colonoscopy training for surgical residents and collect the opinions on the direction for future colonoscopy education. METHODS: A questionnaire survey containing 24 items was conducted by sending an email to 310 colorectal surgeons in 84 training hospitals across the country. RESULTS: One hundred fifteen staff surgeons (115 of 310, 37%) of 84 institutions returned fully completed questionnaires. Most surgeons were working at tertiary hospitals with more than 5 years of clinical experience. About half of the responding surgeons answered that they perform colonoscopy in clinical practice and the main purpose of colonoscopy was follow-up after colorectal resection. Only 9 of 84 hospitals (10.7%) had a regular program on colonoscopy training for surgical residents. Most of colonoscopy education was conducted irregularly in a form of staff lecture, conferences or hands-on workshops. According to the future directions, 72 of 115 surgeons (62.6%) answered judging competency in colonoscopy should be needed for professional qualification of the surgeon. About 50 cases of colonoscopy seem appropriate during the 4-year-training of surgical residency, especially during the third- and fourth-year. CONCLUSION: This survey shows colonoscopy education for surgical residents is still insufficient in Korea and that most surgeons feel that regular colonoscopy training is needed during the surgical residency period. There needs to be efforts to standardize the education program as well as various institutional and academic societal supports to achieve this goal.

Accuracy of Death Certificates Completed by Medical Students / 農村醫學 地域保健

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the ability of completing death certificates among medical students. METHODS: The self-administered questionnaires were completed, during May to August 2007, by 380 medical students in senior. The questionnaire was composed of 10 cases to write the death certificate. The cause-of-deaths written by students were compared with the gold standards and their errors in the certificates also evaluated. RESULTS: Mean agreement score for 10 underlying cause-of-deaths completed on the lowest line of part I in the death certificate (UC1) was 4.8+/-1.7, and for underlying cause-of-death selected by a coder of the death certificates (UC2) was 5.6+/-1.5. The UC1 and UC2 were significantly higher among the students having the case-oriented education for death certificate than others. For the major errors in the certificates completed by students, the students having the error with no antecedent cause were highest, the error with two or more conditions secondly highest. Mean number of errors was significantly lower in the case-oriented education group than others. CONCLUSIONS: Errors are common in the death certificates completed by medical students in senior. The accuracy of death certification may be more improved with the case-oriented education than the traditional method.