Integrating Internship Into Ophthalmology Residency: Assessment of a National Survey and Structured Microsurgical Curriculum.

OBJECTIVE

To report the results of a national survey soliciting residency programs' microsurgical curricula for ophthalmology interns, and the efficacy of a single institution's intern microsurgical wet lab curriculum.

DESIGN

Mixed methods study including a national survey and a prospective trial.

SETTING

Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA. Tertiary care institution.

PARTICIPANTS

In this two-part study, an electronic survey soliciting intern microsurgical curricula was distributed to all accredited ophthalmology residency programs nationwide. Additionally, interns at the study institution (n = 10) were evaluated on speed and quality of a corneal suturing task prior to and following completion of an eight-session microsurgical curriculum. Post-curriculum intern performance was also compared to the performance of first-year ophthalmology residents (n = 5) without an internship microsurgical curriculum.

RESULTS

Twenty-four percent of programs responded (n = 27). All programs had a microsurgical wet lab but only five (19%) had a structured curriculum for interns. Most programs described little emphasis on intern microsurgical training and a need for increased guidance on incorporating intern instruction. Interns (n = 10) showed significant improvement in time to task completion (P = 0.002, 95% CI: 0.76 to 1.51) and technical performance (P = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.44 to 3.21) after curriculum completion. Compared to PGY-2 (curriculum-naïve) residents, interns were faster and performed better, but these differences were not statistically significant.

CONCLUSION

Few ophthalmology residency programs offer microsurgical training during internship. Our structured microsurgical curriculum significantly improved intern microsurgical skills. Nationwide integration of the internship year into ophthalmology residency provides a valuable opportunity to commence microsurgical training.