Surgical residency training program. Are changes needed?

OBJECTIVE To obtain a collective opinion of practicing surgeons on the current state of general surgical residency training. METHODS A data collection sheet was completed by the practicing surgeons involved in the residency training in 5 cities in Saudi Arabia, from January 2004 to December 2005. The survey questions covered mainly 3 aspects of surgical education: problems within the current education system, how education should be conducted, and the best approaches to correct education deficits. RESULTS A total of 96 surgeons involved in the training program responded. Thirty-three (34.4%) were from the Ministry of Health, 59 (61.5%) of the surgeons agreed that surgical skills can be acquired outside the operating theater. The majority (58.3%) considered that, the biggest deficit in graduating residents that must be corrected is technical skills. CONCLUSION Changes are necessary to improve our surgical training program. Collaboration between hospitals to combine the current diverse efforts to train residents outside the operating rooms is necessary to establish a structured skills training center to teach and train both junior and senior residents. Formal education courses for the educators and encouraging residents to accept more responsibilities are additional efforts to improve the process of learning.