Distractions and surgical proficiency: an educational perspective.

BACKGROUND: Surgery training requires residents to focus on tasks while minimizing the effect of distractions. There is a need to develop training methodologies that can enable surgical residents to hone this ability.
METHODS: Fourteen surgical residents were divided into 2 groups. They were trained to perform simulated tasks in a noiseless environment and subsequently performed these tasks in a distractive one. In a follow-up experiment, an experimental group was trained in noisy and distractive conditions and was compared with a control group trained in noiseless conditions.
RESULTS: Residents who trained in noiseless environments possessed decreased surgical proficiency when performing the identical tasks in realistic environments (P < .05). Pretraining in a noisy environment improves surgical proficiency.
CONCLUSIONS: Noise and distractions can significantly impede performance of surgical residents, but this effect can be nullified by introduction of noise and distractions in the training environment.