Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., MEHP was awarded a $5,000 grant from the Association for Surgical Education Foundation (ASEF), stemming from the Center for Excellence in Surgical Education, Research and Training (CESERT) program.

Lindeman submitted the initial project proposal along with her Surgical Education Research Fellowship (SERF) mentee, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Penn State University College of Medicine, Amanda Cooper, M.D., as co-PI. Penn State will serve as the primary institution for the grant funding.

Lindeman and Cooper’s research project aims to develop a self-efficacy scale for resident physicians-in-training. This scale could then be used to further understand whether the confidence crisis in graduates of general surgery training relates more to present measurement methodologies or broader policy implications, including work hour limitations and regulations related to the presence of an attending physician for billing. National limitations were placed on the number of work hours in 2003, and the proposal suspects that the unintended, cascading effect is surgical residents not finishing training with “high levels of self-efficacy in their ability to operate.”

Lindeman is looking forward to beginning the project in the coming weeks, and she can already foresee the impact of the study in surgical residency training.

“This CESERT grant has given us the platform to better understand the factors that contribute to surgeons feeling sufficiently prepared and proficient to enter unsupervised practice when they leave residency.” said Lindeman. “This will help move us forward nationally in understanding how to best determine when our graduates are ready to enter unsupervised practice in order for the United States to continue producing the most capable, successful surgeons possible.”