Abstract

Background: We aim to show that using tasks with increasing complexity and with increasing fidelity of simulation can maximise students’ laparoscopic skills learning, confidence and satisfaction when applied in a single day course.

Methods: At a laparoscopic skills day, students went through skills simulation with increasing fidelity and complexity. We collected surveys prior to and after the skills day, including demographics, prior experience, and self-confidence scores for key laparoscopic tasks on a 1–10 scale, as well as operative skill data using Inovus augmented reality (AR) simulation software.

Results: Every area of the students’ self-confidence improved, with a mean improvement of 3.42 (P < 0.001). The more junior the student, the greater their increase in confidence (mean Pre-Foundation year (FY) +5.2). Notably, using Inovus AR software we found these skills days to provide an improvement on distance travelled of laparoscopic instrument tips when compared to cohort averages.

Conclusion: Mixed fidelity simulation is an effective way of rapidly progressing students’ skills over the course of a single day. Augmented reality is a way of bridging the gap between basic box-trainer tasks and more complex wet-lab simulation. Capturing operative skills data with software provides an opportunity to focus training to maximise progression.

Supplementary material

Supplementary Tables 1-4 are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15700033