A DESIGN AND SURVEY THESIS: AN EXPLORATION OF CREATIVITY IN SURGERY

Abstract

Background: Creativity is the generation of effective and useful ideas, and it has played an integral role in the field of surgery: new techniques, technologies and practices in surgery originate from generation and implementation of creative ideas. Creativity also plays an important role in clinical problem-solving. It is therefore an important ability in the surgical profession. However, despite its importance, literature on creativity in surgery is limited. Research Question: What is the current state of the literature on creativity in medicine, and how creative are surgeons, as measured by a divergent thinking tool? Study Design: Scoping review & survey with semi-structured interviews. Primary Outcome: Divergent thinking (as measured by the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults [ATTA]) Study Setting: McMaster University Medical Center Participants: Surgeons and surgeon trainees in the Department of Surgery Analysis: Descriptive statistics and regression analyses to explore factors associated with divergent thinking. Discussion: We found only 54 primary studies on creativity in medicine, 3 of which were conducted in surgery. Most of the creativity research was conducted in the field of nursing. Our survey of divergent thinking found that while surgeons had an average level of divergent thinking, they struggled to produce original ideas whilst displaying high levels of fluency and flexibility. Being male was significantly negatively associated with divergent thinking. Surgical experience was marginally negatively associated with divergent thinking, suggesting that the training process may be stifling the ability to generate original ideas. Surgeons reported a stifling of creativity in the surgical training process, which corroborated our findings.