Examination stress leads to improvements on fundamental technical skills for surgery

Residency in-training exams induce moderate stress levels in junior surgery residents and are accompanied by improvements in technical performance as assessed by checklist-based scales, suggesting that residents were better at following the itemized sequence of movements when stressed, but their overall global performance was not altered.

Abstract

Residency in-training exams induce moderate stress levels in junior surgery residents and are accompanied by improvements in technical performance as assessed by checklist-based scales. There were no differences on the global rating scales due to stress conditions, suggesting that residents were better at following the itemized sequence of movements when stressed, but their overall global performance was not altered.