The acquisition of factual knowledge and the role of the didactic conference in a surgical residency program.

Conferences and seminars are mandated integral components of modern surgical residency programs. We studied the attendance records of house staff at these seminars, as well as an objective measure of cognitive performance (scores achieved in the ABSITE) to determine the role of the teaching seminar in the acquisition of factual knowledge by residents. Seventy five to 85 residents attended weekly scheduled seminars conducted by faculty on a wide range of surgical topics. Attendance records were kept for postgraduate years 1-5 (PGY1-PGY5) and the percentage of residents attending at all conference encounters was calculated. Individual resident ABSITE scores were pooled for each postgraduate year, and expressed as a mean (+/- standard deviation). PGY1 and PGY2 house staff attended conferences poorly (32% and 25% respectively). A marked increase to 56 per cent was noted for the PGY3 level (P less than 0.001), but failed to rise thereafter in the PGY4 and PGY5 years (56% and 52%). ABSITE scores rise with time and progressive seniority, although mean scores remain constant for given postgraduate years. Varying somewhat with the graduating class, PGY5 scores tend to be substantially better than in the PGY1 and PGY2 years. No correlation could be demonstrated between the patterns of conference attendance and the ABSITE scores for each graduating class (r = 0.761; P greater than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)