Evaluation of psychomotor skills acquired for surgery by veterinary students using biological simulators

This study aimed to evaluate the acquisition of psychomotor skills using biological simulators in surgical practices by thirdyear students of Veterinary Medicine at the Autonomous Metropolitan University, Mexico City. The Gibson Spiral Test was applied pre- and post-practice to 171 students (92 women, 79 men) between 18 and 38 years old. The techniques practiced were: ligature, synthetic skin, enterotomy, enterectomy, gastrostomy, cystotomy, endotracheal tube placement, permanent intravenous catheter. Students were classified as fast-accurate (FA), fast- inaccurate (FI), slow-accurate (SA), and slow-inaccurate (SI). The test duration decreased by 7.91s (P0.10). There were differences among the fast (F) and slow (S) students pre-practice (P0.10). Comparing practice time difference (P=0.007) between slow and fast in the pre-practice, men performed more quickly in pre-practice and after practice (P<0.0001), with no differences in mean number of errors pre- (P=0.662) and post-practice (P=0.962). We conclude that students showed progress in acquiring motor skills, by increasing their speed and reducing errors, thus increasing the number of fast and accurate students. Men outperformed women