QS51. Ultrasound Training of Surgical Attendings and Residents: A Pilot Study of Learning Assessment

290 ASSOCIATION FOR ACADEMIC SURGERY AND SOCIETY OF UNIVERSITY SURGEONS—ABSTRACTS standing emotions and managing emotions. The four subscales of the WLEIS are self-perception of emotions, other-perceptions of emotions, understanding emotions, and regulation of emotions. Results: Of the 247 students approached, 152 agreed to participate (response rate 62%). The mean age was 24 (standard deviation [sd]⫽3), 61 (40%) were male, and 75 (49%) were White. The MSCEIT provides scores on a normative scale, where the normative mean is 100 and the normative sd is 15 on all subcales and on the overall scale. Thus, we expected to find medical student means greater than 100. Instead, medical student means were similar to the general population on all 4 subscales and overall (means 98.31 - 100.54), although medical students were less variable than the general population (sds ranged from 7.9 to 12.9). The WLEIS does not have extensive norms. However, medical student scores tended to be higher than available comparison groups (overall mean 5.06 vs 4.63), and again, variance of medical student scores was lower. Although both the MSCEIT and the WLEIS purport to measure emotional intelligence, the correlations between the MSCEIT and WLEIS were lower than expected in the subscales (range 0.00 - 0.24), and the correlation between overall scores was 0.18. The MSCEIT was developed as an ability test (e.g., what is the person in this picture feeling?), but the WLEIS was developed as a direct self-report measure (e.g., how good are you at controlling your emotions?). Because of this difference in item types, it is perhaps not too surprising that the scores on the two tests show a small correlation. Conclusion: By two measurements, medical students appear similar to the general population in terms of emotional intelligence. This finding was particularly strong for the MSCEIT, which does not depend on a direct self-evaluation of emotional intelligence. Research is needed to understand the impact of emotional intelligence on performance in the third and fourth year of medical school, and also on how to better elucidate emotional intelligence of medical students. QS51. ULTRASOUND TRAINING OF SURGICAL ATTENDINGS AND RESIDENTS: A PILOT STUDY OF LEARNING ASSESSMENT. Kathryn M. Tchorz1, Kresimira M. Milas2, Randall S. Friese3, Margaret M. Dunn1, Jonathan M. Saxe1, A. Marilyn Leitch3; 1Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton, OH; 2The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, OH; 3University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX Introduction: Surgeon-performed ultrasound has become standard practice in many surgical subspecialties, but efforts to test learning goals and objectives in ultrasound training are not well described. Therefore, a pilot study was conducted to study the educational value of goal-directed test question design. Methods: Twenty-one study participants, comprised of trauma/critical care attendings and senior surgical residents, were enrollled in an intensive 1-day ultrasound course which was comprised of didactic and hands-on sessions. All participants had real-life experience utilizing ultrasound in the trauma setting and gave verbal consent for study participation. Inclusion criterion was successful completion of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Ultrasound for Surgeons CD-ROM module. A 20-question, pre-course test was administered, each with 5 multiple choice answers covering specific course learning goals and objectives. Didactic sessions included: 1) Essential Ultrasound Physics Principles 2) Trauma Ultrasound 3) Ultrasound in the SICU 4) Ultrasound for the Acute Abdomen 5) Breast Ultrasound 6) Thyroid/Parathyroid Ultrasound and 7) Focused Vascular Ultrasound. Hands-on sessions included: 1) Interventional 2) Hepatobiliary/Vascular 3) FAST/ Cardiac/Thoracic 4) Breast and 5) Neck/Thyroid/Parathyroid. A post-course test was administered, consisting of the same 20 pretest questions but in a re-arranged order. A passing grade was 80% correct answers. There was no review of the pre-test questions at any time during the course. All ultrasound instructors were nationally recognized in ultrasound proficiency by the ACS

and/or surgical subspecialty associations. Results: Of the 21 study participants, there were 10% (2/21) PGY 3s, 24% (5/21) PGY 4s, 33% (7/21) PGY 5s and 33% (7/21) attendings. Pre-course raw scores were 15.3 ⫾ 2.2 and post-course scores were 17.7 ⫾ 1.1. Pre-course and post-course pass rates were 57% and 100% respectively. Mann-Whitney U Test p⫽0.57 (NS). Conclusions: Both faculty and surgical residents identified gaps in their ultrasound knowledge and applied the newly acquired information to obtain a 100% pass rate on the post-course test. Emphasis on goal-directed question design may lead to increased knowledge obtained from intensive educational sessions. However, a more sophisticated study design, coupled with the testing of long-term knowledge retention, will be required to properly study the impact of this type of educational endeavor. QS52. EFFICACY OF THREE TOPICAL HEMOSTATIC AGENTS APPLIED BY MEDICS IN A LETHAL GROIN INJURY MODEL. Vance Y. Sohn, Zachary Arthurs, Matthew Eckert, Jason Perry, Matthew Martin, Alec C. Beekley, Robert M. Rush, Jr.; Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA Background: Advanced topical hemostatic agents are increasingly utilized to control traumatic hemorrhage. We sought to determine the efficacy of three chitosan based hemostatic agents in a lethal groin injury model when applied by combat medic first responders. Methods: After creation of a standardized femoral artery injury in a goat model, medics attempted hemorrhage control with standard gauze dressing followed by randomization to one of three hemostatic agents in this two tiered study. In the first tier, medics were randomized to either a chitosan based one-sided wafer (OS) or a dualsided, flexible, roll (DS). In the second tier, medics were randomized to the flexible DS dressing or a chitosan powder (CP). Efficacy of gauze, each chitosan agent, proper application, and participant surveys were obtained and included for analysis using univariate techniques. Results: From January 2007 to June 2007, 55 (45%) DS, 36 (29%) OS, and 32 (26%) CP agents were used to treat 123 actively bleeding arterial injuries in 64 animals. Standard gauze failed to stop hemorrhage in 122 (99%) groins. Hemostasis at 2 and 4 minutes are provided in graphic format (p > 0.05). Although all three chitosan agents were marginally effective at 2 minutes, the recommended time for application, hemostasis improved after 4 minutes. The DS dressing was the most effective, controlling hemorrhage 76% at 4 minutes. Of the failures, 3 (25%) DS and 9 (53%) OS were due to improper application. End-user survey results demonstrated that medics preferred the DS dressing 77% and 60% over the OS and CP, respectively. Conclusions: Chitosan based bandages are significantly more effective at hemorrhage control compared to standard gauze field dressings. The dual-sided chitosan dressing demonstrated better hemorrhage control than the one-sided dressing and the chitosan powder and was less likely to fail despite application errors.

QS53. PASSING A VIRTUAL REALITY-BASED CURRICULUM AND SKILLS EXAM IMPROVES LAPARO-