Establishing Competency Assessment Standards for Graduating Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery, and Orthopedic Surgery Residents in Peripheral Nerve Surgery

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Peripheral nerve decompression (PND), including carpal tunnel release and ulnar nerve decompression, is a common procedure performed by neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and plastic surgeons. Because of the lack of established assessment parameters and performance standards for Entrustable Professional Activities in PND in the current literature, we conducted this study to define these assessment parameters and identify the expected standards of performance for graduating residents across the fields of neurosurgery, plastic surgery, and orthopedic surgery. METHODS: Electronic survey was sent to neurosurgery, plastic surgery, and orthopedic surgery faculty to obtain their perspectives on parameters of assessment and the expected standard competence performance regarding PND. RESULTS: Sixty-one participants returned fully completed questionnaires giving a completion rate of 53%. The overall recommended number of assessments was 5, and the recommended number of assessors was 2. Regarding each specialty, there was no significant difference in