In 2011, all residents (n = 51) and attending surgeons (n = 108) in 1 training region, consisting of 7 hospitals, were surveyed. Participants were asked to rate the importance of the CanMEDS competencies and the suitability of the adopted assessment tools. Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale and considered relevant when at least 80 % of the respondents rated an item with a score of 4 or 5 (indicating a positive attitude). Reliability was evaluated by calculating the Cronbach¡¯s ¦Á, and the Mann-Whitney test was applied to assess differences between groups.
The response rate was 88 % (n = 140). The CanMEDS framework demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach¡¯s ¦Á = 0.87). However, the importance of the competencies ¡®Manager¡¯ (78 % ) and ¡®Health Advocate¡¯ (70 % ) was undervalued. The assessment tools failed to achieve an acceptable reliability (Cronbach¡¯s ¦Á = 0.55), and individual tools were predominantly considered unsuitable for assessment. Exceptions were the tools ¡®in-training evaluation report¡¯ (91 % ) and ¡®objective structured assessment of technical skill¡¯ (82 % ). No significant differences were found between the residents and the attending surgeons.
This study has demonstrated that, 2 years after the reform of the general surgical residency program, residents and attending surgeons in a large training region in the Netherlands do not acknowledge the importance of all CanMEDS competencies and consider the assessment tools generally unsuitable for competence evaluation.