Assessment of Their Training in Surgical Gastroenterology by Residents from Two Major Institutes in India

Majority of the studies from the Indian subcontinent have focused on the analysis of surgical training from the mentor’s point of view, i.e. a top-down approach. In the present pilot study, we analysed the quality of Surgical Gastroenterology program at two of the most reputed teaching hospitals of the country by the means of feedback from the residents. The study was conducted using an objective questionnaire through the SurveyMonkey portal. The responses were objectively assessed on a Likert scale and analysed using the Z test of significance. There were a total of 113 participants from both the institutes (Male: 110; Female: 3). Majority of the residents reported overall satisfaction with the training program at both the institutes (Median score: 4–5 for most parameters). There was a higher level of satisfaction with hands-on training in the public sector (71 vs 46%; p < 0.01) and a greater level of satisfaction with research and publications noted in the private sector (87 vs 72%; p = 0.04). A higher preference to diversify into liver transplantation was noted in the residents trained from the private sector compared to the public sector. Lack of exposure to minimally invasive surgeries was a drawback noted in both private and public sector. Even though the results cannot represent the entire surgical gastroenterology training fraternity of India, the results could be used to improve other programmes. Areas of potential improvement could be hands-on exposure for residents in the private sector and wider exposure to advanced minimal access surgery and liver transplantation in the public sector.