Interactive voice response to assess residents' laparoscopic skills: An instrument validation study

OBJECTIVE: The study was undertaken to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) instrument to assess laparoscopic surgical skills of residents. STUDY DESIGN: Surgical competence of obstetric-gynecologic residents at the University of Ottawa (Canada) was evaluated after observed performance of skills. Three questions addressing general domains of surgical skill were rated per surgery using a 5-point Likert scale: overall, 993 surgical ratings were made by 29 residents and 13 faculty preceptors. RESULTS: With use of a generalizability study, a minimum of 12 preceptor ratings (G=0.80) are needed to obtain reliable measures of residents' surgical skills. Item analysis indicated that the three items on the instrument were highly correlated (Cronbach alpha=.92). Elements of construct validity were evident for diagnostic and simple laparoscopic procedures. CONCLUSION: The IVR instrument can be a valid and reliable measure of residents' surgical skills. The IVR ratings functioned as a global rating scale, capturing overall elements of surgical skills. The ratings on the IVR tool had construct validity with improved performance with increased surgical training and experience.