Abstract: Objective To investigate the current situation of surgical teaching for residents of Chinese ophthalmology. Methods Questionnaires were collected from ophthalmology teaching hospitals and standardized training centers across China. Results A total of 238 ophthalmologists were enrolled, of which 194(81.51%) participated in surgical teaching. Cataract surgery was most frequently taught (51.03%). The median number (interquartile range) of surgical operation that residents were scheduled to observe was 135(450), the number of operations that residents performed at some steps was 30(50), and the number of surgical operation that residents may perform independently was 5(19). The three tasks that teachers considered most difficult were to establish a good Wet Lab program (56.19%), the prevention of complications (51.55%) and the overall work of surgical teaching (50.52%). The response with the highest proportion of “very difficult” was to convince patients about the involvement of residents in the treatment(36.60%). The most difficult step in cataract surgery teaching was nucleus fragmentation. Conclusions Although residents' surgical training is widely carried out in China, many difficulties still exist. The number of the operation that can independently be completed by the residents is relatively low.

Key words: ophthalmology, surgical teaching, resident standardized training, questionnaire survey