Ensuring Quality in Endoscopic Training: Tools for the Educator and Trainee

Endoscopic training is a complex process, combining both cognitive and psychomotor skill development and can be challenging for the educator. This challenge extends into clinical practice as quality benchmarks evolve and the path to individual improvement still requires clarity. The aim of this manuscript is to simplify this challenge for educators and clinical endoscopists alike. We review tools that the educator can employ such as effective feedback, clinical coaching, and mastery learning. We discuss factors that may impact how trainees learn endoscopy and review of cognitive load theory. After establishing these tools for the educator, the manuscript proceeds to review assessment methods for endoscopic training and the data that has driven the evolution away from a standard number of procedures to a competency-based assessment. The role of simulators and validated endoscopic assessment tools within competency based, endoscopic teaching is reviewed as well. Moving from endoscopy training into clinical practice, this manuscript explores how these feedback and coaching techniques might also be used in clinical practice to aid struggling endoscopists to meet clinical quality benchmarks and credentialing standards. Lastly, we identify potential opportunities for future scholarship in this arena.