Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) Survey Based on Two Pilot-Tested, Self-Administered Questionnaires Administered to Consenting Faculty and Resident Participants and Retrieved in a Sealed, Anonymized Envelope

Background

Various socioeconomic changes are driving a review of surgical resident training. Concern exists that these demands are not well perceived by surgical faculty thereby leading to a hiatus between how surgical residents are educated and what is expected of them as independent clinicians. It is necessary to quantify resident and faculty awareness of these issues and to find areas of improvement for making resident education more relevant to this changing socioeconomic setup.

Objectives

1. To gauge awareness among surgical faculty and residents in regard to trends and concepts in postgraduate surgical education. 2. To compare how the attitudes and practices differ among the faculty and residents vis-à-vis resident education.

Setting

Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, a tertiary care, private teaching hospital in Pakistan.

Results

With a retrieval rate of 70% for the faculty and 90% for the residents, the survey revealed interesting differences in perceptions between the 2 groups. Knowledge among respondents is very good for certain aspects of adult education, whereas other areas leave room for improvement. Faculty and residents have opposing views on resident work-hour reduction. Faculty overestimate their roles as enablers. Good knowledge about motivations for adult learning is not translated into positive attitudes and humiliation remains prevalent as does indifference toward imbibing advances into resident education. Residents generally were dissatisfied about their operative experience.

Conclusions

A gap persists in knowledge about motivations for resident learning and practices. Implementation of a skills-laboratory curriculum, objective-oriented rotations, and interdisciplinary initiatives for imbibing advances are potential avenues for improvement.

Key Words: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) survey, surgical resident education, adult learning, developing world, surgical skills laboratory, work-hour reduction

Competencies: Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, Practice-Based Learning and Improvement