Trial of Proficiency- Based Simulation Training for General Surgical Trainees

The hypothesis of this trial is to demonstrate that training junior surgeons on a virtual reality (VR) simulator in addition to didactic teaching will improve their intraoperative performance compared to those trainees who receive the traditional teaching paradigm (i.e, operating under the guidance and instruction of a consultant general surgeon). We anticipate that the VR trained group will make less critical intraoperative errors and will perform faster than their traditionally trained colleagues. Other study questions include: 1. Does objective assessment of fundamental abilities (FA) such as visuo-spatial ability predict intra-operative performance? 2. Do FA predict rate of learning to reach proficiency?