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Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: BACKGROUND, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Clinical Competence, Education, Medical, Undergraduate, Educational Measurement, Female, Humans, Laparoscopy, Male, Retention (Psychology), Students, Medical, Young Adult.
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Does multitask training promote automaticity of a fundamental laparoscopic skill without compromising the rate of skill learning? Context: A defining characteristic of expertise is automated performance of skills, which frees attentional capacity to better cope with some common intraoperative stressors. There is a paucity of research on how best to foster automated performance by surgical trainees. This study examined the use of a multitask training approach to promote automated, robust laparoscopic skills. Eighty-one medical students completed training of a fundamental laparoscopic task in either a traditional single-task training condition or a novel multitask training condition. Following training, participants' laparoscopic performance was tested in a retention test, two stress transfer tests (distraction and time pressure) and a secondary task test, which was included to evaluate automaticity of performance. The laparoscopic task was also performed as part of a formal clinical examination (OSCE). The training groups did not differ in the number of trials required to reach task proficiency (p = .72), retention of skill (ps > .45), or performance in the clinical examination (p = .14); however, the groups did differ with respect to the secondary task (p = .016). The movement efficiency (number of hand movements) of single-task trainees, but not multitask trainees, was negatively affected during the secondary task test. The two stress transfer tests had no discernable impact on the performance of either training group.
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Multitask training was not detrimental to the rate of learning of a fundamental laparoscopic skill and added value by providing resilience in the face of a secondary task load, indicative of skill automaticity. Further work is needed to determine the extent of the clinical utility afforded by multitask training. Final Decision: yes