Surgical Audit and Research
General Surgery · Topic 7
Source: NMC CBME Curriculum 2024 · Volume III · General Surgery · Topic 7 · combined PDF page 404
Practice questions
- A surgical unit measures checklist use, identifies that emergency cases frequently lack documented site marking, introduces a targeted change and then collects the same measure again. What is the main purpose of the repeat measurement?
- An audit reports that 80% of eligible operations had a completed checklist. Which additional reporting detail is most essential for interpreting this percentage?
- A neurosurgical audit finds that emergency cases have poorer checklist completion than elective cases. Which presentation of the results is most useful for revealing this gap?
- An audit records whether the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist form was present and whether identity confirmation and site marking were documented. Which interpretation is correct?
- A team presents audit findings at a meeting but does not assign responsibility for an agreed change or plan further measurement. What is the most important weakness?
- A department wants to assess whether its local checklist practice meets a stated target and then correct any identified gap. Which approach best matches that aim?
- A surgeon uses routinely collected records for a project. Which statement about classifying the project is most appropriate?
- A team is uncertain whether a planned project is local quality improvement or research requiring ethics review. What is the best next step?
- A local audit shows a checklist gap, and a hospital wants to change its workflow to address that gap. Which description best captures the relationship between the two activities?
- An evidence-based surgical intervention has demonstrated efficacy, but uptake in routine practice remains inconsistent. Which response is most consistent with the cited implementation perspective?
- A multicentre surgical study uses different definitions of healing at each hospital. What is the most direct problem this creates?
- A protocol follows patients undergoing surgery over time without assigning them to a surgical technique. Which design description best fits this feature?
- A prospective observational surgical cohort finds that one technique is associated with better healing than another. What is the most defensible interpretation?
- Why might an international surgical study adopt a core outcome measurement set?
- A fistula study records clinical healing and radiological healing as separate outcomes. Why is this appropriate?
- A surgical outcome set includes continence, psychological impact and quality of life in addition to healing and complications. What is the main rationale?
- In the CRAFT protocol, the short-term audit arm and the longer-term cohort arm have different follow-up structures. Which statement matches the protocol?
- A multicentre study plans to compare recurrence and complications. What should investigators do before data collection to improve interpretability?
- A study protocol is published before enrolment is complete. Which conclusion is justified by the protocol alone?
- A research team is preparing a submission in the Irish framework described by the cited review. Which set most closely reflects the listed submission materials?
- A study is being conducted outside Ireland, but an investigator has read the Irish research-governance review. How should its regulatory guidance be used?
- An international observational study obtains central ethics approval. What additional governance point is illustrated by the CRAFT protocol?
- A prospective cohort involves direct participation by surgical patients. Which action is consistent with the CRAFT protocol and sound governance planning?
- A collaborative surgical study uses electronic case-report forms containing participant data. Which planning priority is most appropriate?
- A research team is deciding whether to involve patients and the public in study planning. Which rationale is supported by the cited review?
- An international study plans digital questionnaires, but some participants may have limited access to digital tools. Which design choice is illustrated by the CRAFT protocol?
- Study materials are translated using an AI-assisted process for a multinational surgical project. What safeguard is described in the CRAFT protocol?
- A surgical research group has completed an efficacy study but has not examined how clinicians will adopt its recommendation in routine care. Which gap does this represent?
- A surgical service is designing a study to compare outcomes across centres and wants results that may inform future guideline development. Which approach is most directly supported by the CRAFT protocol?
- A trainee interprets a low rate of checklist completion in emergency surgery as proof that the checklist itself is ineffective. What is the best correction?
- Which planned set of outcomes most closely reflects the patient-centred breadth of the CRAFT study?