Poster2-07: EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS OF AN ACUTE CARE SURGERY ROTATION DURING THE MEDICAL STUDENT SURGICAL CLERKSHIP
Audrey L Chai, BA1, Kazuhide Matsushima, MD2; 1Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, 2Division of Acute Care Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Southern California
Background: Medical schools nationwide have been integrating Acute Care Surgery (ACS) experience into surgical clerkship curriculum for medical students to gain exposure to this relatively new specialty. Experience in ACS allows students to learn the unique principles of trauma, critical care, and emergency surgery. In this study, we present some of the ACS-related learning achievements self-reported by students after completing an ACS rotation during their surgical clerkship.
Materials and Methods: We collected end-of-clerkship evaluations from the last three academic years completed by students who had finished a 6-week general surgery clerkship including a required 3-week ACS rotation at our institution. A total of 548 evaluations were completed (186 in 2015-2016, 183 in 2016-2017, and 179 in 2017-2018). We reviewed students’ anonymous, open-ended responses to the question: “Describe the three most valuable things that you have gained in terms of your own growth during this clerkship.” Educational gains specifically related to ACS experience were noted and observed for any patterns. We calculated percentages of students who responded with at least one “most valuable thing” that was uniquely related to the ACS rotation for each year.
Results: Nearly 40% (212 out of 548 students) of students over the last three years stated at least one thing that was uniquely related to ACS training in their response. There were 74 out of 179 (41%) students who responded with at least one ACS-related gain in 2017-2018, 64 out of 183 (35%) students in 2016-2017, and 74 out of 186 (40%) students in 2015-2016. Of note, some of these students listed more than one ACS-related valuable gain: 20 students in 2017-18, 14 in 2016-17, and 18 in 2015-16. We reviewed the ACS-specific responses and identified four commonly reported areas: becoming more comfortable with trauma assessments, gaining experience with ICU and critical care patient management, experiencing a 30-hour/overnight call, and learning when surgical consultation and/or intervention are indicated for common acute surgical problems.
Conclusions: This study highlights the value of ACS training at the medical school level and identifies unique benefits students gain from an ACS rotation and find particularly important for their own growth.