Academic global surgical competencies: A modified Delphi consensus study.
Pawlak N., Dart C., Aguilar HS., Ameh E., Bekele A., Jimenez MF., Lakhoo K., Ozgediz D., Roy N., Terfera G., Ademuyiwa AO., Alayande BT., Alonso N., Anderson GA., Anyanwu SNC., Aregawi AB., Bandyopadhyay S., Banu T., Bedada AG., Belachew AG., Botelho F., Bua E., Campos LN., Dodgion C., Drejza M., Durieux ME., Dutta R., Erdene S., Ferreira RV., Gathuya Z., Ghosh D., Jawa RS., Johnson WD., Khan FA., Leon FJN., Long KL., Macleod JBA., Mahajan A., Maine RG., Malolos GZC., McClain CD., Nabukenya MT., Nthumba PM., Nwomeh BC., Ojuka DK., Penny N., Quiodettis MA., Rickard J., Roa L., Salgado LS., Samad L., Seyi-Olajide JO., Smith M., Starr N., Stewart RJ., Tarpley JL., Trostchansky JL., Trostchansky I., Weiser TG., Wobenjo A., Wollner E., Jayaraman S.
Academic global surgery is a rapidly growing field that aims to improve access to safe surgical care worldwide. However, no universally accepted competencies exist to inform this developing field. A consensus-based approach, with input from a diverse group of experts, is needed to identify essential competencies that will lead to standardization in this field. A task force was set up using snowball sampling to recruit a broad group of content and context experts in global surgical and perioperative care. A draft set of competencies was revised through the modified Delphi process with two rounds of anonymous input. A threshold of 80% consensus was used to determine whether a competency or sub-competency learning objective was relevant to the skillset needed within academic global surgery and perioperative care. A diverse task force recruited experts from 22 countries to participate in both rounds of the Delphi process. Of the n = 59 respondents completing both rounds of iterative polling, 63% were from low- or middle-income countries. After two rounds of anonymous feedback, participants reached consensus on nine core competencies and 31 sub-competency objectives. The greatest consensus pertained to competency in ethics and professionalism in global surgery (100%) with emphasis on justice, equity, and decolonization across multiple competencies. This Delphi process, with input from experts worldwide, identified nine competencies which can be used to develop standardized academic global surgery and perioperative care curricula worldwide. Further work needs to be done to validate these competencies and establish assessments to ensure that they are taught effectively.