PS1-07: PREPAREDNESS FOR THE OPERATING ROOM: EVALUATING THE UTILITY OF AN INTERACTIVE RESOURCE
Kerry A Swanson, BS, Jessica C Heard, BS, C E Welch, MD, Zhamak Khorgami, MD, Geoffrey S Chow, MD; OU School of Community Medicine

Purpose: Each year, medical students and physician assistant (PA) students participate in surgery clerkships and are expected to attend and be prepared for operating room (OR) cases. There are limited resources that have students as the primary audience. In this study, we examine the utility of a new student-oriented interactive resource.

Methods: A resource was created for a common surgical procedure students observed during their clerkship. Medical and PA students at one institution were surveyed using a 7-point Likert Scale to evaluate the utility of the sample resource, the time they anticipate it would take to review, and in what format they would prefer to access the resource.

Results: Response rate for the survey was 49% (n=95). Students noted a variety of resources that they used to prepare for cases, with UpToDate and online videos being the most commonly used (74% and 73% respectively). Students spent an average of 28 minutes (SD: 16) preparing for each case. Only 17% of students surveyed agreed that they were prepared to discuss the steps of common cases. Most students believed the sample resource would take between 11-30 minutes (88%) to review. Nearly all students felt that the sample resource would be helpful (86%). In addition, a high proportion of students felt they would use this type of tutorial to prepare for cases (70%).

Discussion: There are a variety of resources available, but few are tailored to the knowledge level of students. The resource created would allow students to review basic information about the procedure including indications, contraindications, anatomy, necessary steps, and potential complications with the secondary goal of being time efficient. Students felt tutorials like this would be helpful and align with student’s current time allotments. Future studies should examine if similar resources can improve student perceptions of preparedness.

Figure 1: Screenshots of sample resource