Self-retaining retractors are essential to providing and maintaining exposure of target anatomy across surgical specialties. To maximize the function of retractors in the operating room (OR), surgeons must possess the knowledge of retractor types and proper placement for optimal visualization while avoiding patient injury. Despite the criticality of self-retaining retractors for a safe and successful operative experience, there is no known curriculum dedicated to teaching residents about the proper use of retractors. The goal of our project is to design and implement a curriculum to teach surgical residents self-retaining retractor types, proper selection, and optimal placement in a low-stakes simulation-based environment.

1.     PROPOSAL SUMMARY/ABSTRACT 

Deliberate practice with timely, behavior-based feedback is critical to guide iterative learning goal formation as a part of self-regulated learning (SRL) for medical students. Faculty and Standardized Patients (SPs) provide valued sources of meaningful feedback for pre-clerkship students’ early clinical skills development, but their use is limited by expense, time,­­­ and logistic hurdles.

1. ABSTRACT
Confidence in intravenous (IV) catheter placement is a lifesaving skill that has been shown to be lacking in many interns [1, 2]. Our program aims to combine lectures, simulation and clinical practice to train medical students (MSs) in IV skills placement and ensure that the next generation of interns feel better equipped to manage IV placement.

1.            PROPOSAL SUMMARY/ABSTRACT