An informative discussion of proctoring and supervision called "Is There a Proctor in the House?" appeared in 2012 on a website called Law Journal Newsletters.
Proctoring has always been an issue. For many years, surgeons have been assigned to proctor newly appointed staff in order to confirm that they were properly trained. Proctoring has been extended to those learning new techniques in minimally invasive and robotic surgery.
The usual scenario is that a proctor is assigned by a hospital's department chair or credentials committee with the expectation that the proctor will observe and report on the new individual's skills.
According to the article, "a surgical proctor who acts only as an observer should not have any medical malpractice liability if a procedure is performed below the standard of care." This holds true as long as the proctor has no physician-patient relationship and does not participate in any medical decision-making or scrub in on the procedure.
