Surgery residents (postgraduate year [PGY]1–5, n = 91) were enrolled in an Institutional Review Board approved protocol. All participants initially underwent proficiency-based training on all 5 FLS tasks. Subsequently, available residents were enrolled every 6 months in an ongoing training curriculum that included retention tests on tasks 4 and 5, with mandatory retraining to proficiency if the proficiency levels were not achieved. The final retention test included the actual FLS certification examination for PGY4–5 trainees.
A 96 % participation rate was achieved for all curricular components during the 2-year study period (PGY3–5, n = 33). Skill retention at retention 1–4 was 83 % , 94 % , 98 % , and 91 % for task 4 and 85 % , 95 % , 96 % , and 100 % for task 5, respectively. All PGY4–5 (n = 20) residents passed the FLS certification examination, achieving 413 ± 28 total score on the skills portion (passing score ≥270) and demonstrating 92 % retention for all 5 tasks.
Proficiency-based training with subsequent ongoing practice results in a very high level of skill retention after 2 years and uniformly allows trainees to pass the FLS certification examination.