TITLE:
Entry-Level Forward Surgical Team Training Is Associated with Increased Confidence of Primary Combat Surgeons
AUTHORS:
Junnan Wang, Jiating Hu, Wang Xi, Pengchao Cheng, Pei Wang, Zhinong Wang, Jian Xiao
KEYWORDS:
Forward Surgical Team Training, Primary Combat Surgeons, Combat Medical Skills, Increased Confidence
JOURNAL NAME:
Surgical Science,
Vol.14 No.5,
May
31,
2023
ABSTRACT: Background: In recent years, we have established an entry-level Forward Surgical Team (FST) training program in a Chinese military medical university for the 5th grade
undergraduates, who would be deployed to different military medical services as primary combat
surgeons. This study
aimed to assess
the role of this pre-service training in improving their confidence with combat medical skills, after several years since they received the
training. Methods: We conducted a nationwide survey of 239 primary combat
surgeons who
have ever participated in an entry-level FST training program before
deployment between June 2016 and June 2020, which was for evaluating on a 5-point
Likert scale the benefits of entry-level FST training and conventional surgery training in improving their confidence with combat medical
skills. The difference in scores was compared using the student t-test. Significance was considered
as P Results: The
total score was significantly higher for entry-level FST
training than that for conventional surgery training (30.76 ± 4.33 vs. 28.95 ±
4.80, P There was no significant difference between the training for surgical skills confidence scores (18.03 ± 8.04 vs. 17.51
± 8.30, P = 0.098), but for non-technical skills, the
score of entry-level FST training was
significantly higher than that of conventional surgery training (12.73 ± 5.39 vs. 11.44 ± 5.62, P The
distributions of confidence scores were different
under various subgroups by demographics. There were no significant differences in scores between the two training in all specific surgical skill
sets except
“life-saving surgery” (P = 0.011). Scores of all 4 non-technical skill sets were significantly
higher for entry-level FST than those for conventional surgery training (P Conclusions: The training should
be considered as an essential strategy to
improve confidence in combat medical skills, especially life-saving
surgery and non-technical skills, for primary combat surgeons.