Mental Conditioning to Perform Common Operations in General Surgery Training

Surgical training has evolved from a time-dependent to a milestone-based education platform. In the past, the general consensus was that observing while training for a specific amount of time would result in a resident or fellow mastering a surgical procedure. Today, residents and fellows are being evaluated in a more granular fashion, using a more "stepwise approach" relative to the progress made while in training. It has been the editors' observation that, while some residents will understand and become skilled at performing a specific procedure after observing a master surgeon for a short period of time, others will never achieve such mastery in the same time period, or will require additional time to achieve a similar skill set. In the aviation industry, the use of simulators has enabled pilots to develop basic skills and train in situations of stress in order to expedite their skill acquisition and be prepared for when unexpected situations arise. However, given that simulators are expensive and not widely available, the actual time pilots spend on simulation is limited. As a result, in order to maintain the trainee's skill level to deal with unexpected stressful situations in the absence of a simulator, decades ago the aviation industry introduced the technique of "Mental Training". Mental training is a technique in which an individual is able to "mentally rehearse" a task without actually physically performing it. Research and the literature on surgical training have shown that, similar to sports and the aviation industry, the use of this technique has dramatically shortened the training time and maintained the skill level of a surgeon in training. This book presents the reader, mainly residents and fellows, with a comprehensive and step-wise, systematic approach platform on how to perform a surgical procedure. The book has been divided into specialty sections and procedure-specific chapters. Written by residents and highly experienced attending surgeons, each procedure has been divided into "nodal points" or "steps" to be followed. Residents and trainees can quickly understand the sequence of events and movements required to perform a given task so that they are able to rehearse a procedure without actually performing it.