Evaluation of a surgical trainee logbook system in Sierra Leone

Abstract

Background Task-sharing is an increasingly used tool to improve surgical capacity in low-income countries. Within task-sharing training programs surgical logbooks are commonly applied for monitoring and evaluation of the trainees. The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of such a logbook system in Sierra Leone and to identify areas of improvement. Methods The last 100 logbook entries for students and graduates participating in a task-sharing training program were compared with hospital records. The entries were categorized as being matching, close-matching or over-reported. Also, hospital records were checked for under-reported procedures. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the study participants on logbook recording routines. The results were analyzed using mixed effects logistic regression models. Results 3169 database entries from 35 participants were analyzed. 62.2% of the entries matched the hospital records, 10.4% were close-matches and 26.9% were over-reported. 20.7% of the investigated hospital records were under-reported. Conclusion Information gathered from surgical logbook systems must be applied with care, and great efforts must be made to ensure that the logbook systems used provide reliable data.