Training curricula for endoscopic surgery for residents are still mandatory. While endoscopic surgery extensively accommodates and adapts advanced technology, it demands life-long familiarity with every modality used. This includes their potential adverse effects, their use, and trouble-shooting. Although minimally invasive skills are obtained largely while on the job, most countries have guidelines on the core curricula of general surgical, gynecological, and urological training. Although the validity (in terms of its positive effects on clinical performance) of simulation is still surprisingly limited, new technical developments, logical, and ethical reasons justify its inclusion in training curricula. Background information, used to train residents into fully competent endoscopic surgeons, is obtained through a variety of approaches, such as Rasmussen’s theory of planned behavior in three steps: skill-based, rule-based, and knowledge-based. Training in basic MIS skills is therefore a condition that cannot be ignored.
