Poster3-09: POSITIVE SURGERY CLERKSHIP EXPERIENCES - ARE WE REACHING ALL STUDENTS?
Sophia McKinley, MD, EdM1, Doug Cassidy, MD1, Arian Mansur1, Noelle Saillant, MD1, Arundhati Ghosh, MD2, Amy Evenson, MD3, Reza Askari, MD4, Alex Haynes, MD, MPH1, Nancy Cho, MD4, Benjamin James, MD3, Jaisa Olasky, MD5, Erika Rangel, MD4, Emil Petrusa, PhD1, Roy Phitayakorn, MD, MHPE1; 1Massachusetts General Hospital, 2Cambridge Health Alliance, 3Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, 4Brigham and Women's Hospital, 5Mount Auburn Hospital
Introduction: Surgery clerkship characteristics and experiences such as meaningful operative involvement and surgeon role modeling have been associated with positive medical student perceptions of surgery and increased student interest in pursuing a surgical career. This study aims to describe the frequency with which students report positive surgery clerkship characteristics/experiences.
Methods: 125 medical students at 3 academic hospitals completed pre- and post-clerkship surveys assessing 1) surgery clerkship characteristics/experiences and 2) perceptions of surgery as a profession.
Results: 92% of students completed both a pre- and post-clerkship survey (n=115). 88% of students agreed that the clerkship was a meaningful experience overall (mean agreement=4.4, 1=strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree). 67% agreed that the OR was a positive learning environment, and 56% responded that residents/attendings meaningfully involved them in the OR. Residents and attendings were identified as good role models by 82% and 79% of students respectively. With regards to operative opportunity, 99% of students sutured at least once, 91% used electrosurgery, 89% drove the laparoscopic camera, and 74% made an incision. 92% of students saw a surgical consult independently, and 64% reported seeing an individual surgical patient through all phases of care including pre-operative assessment, operation, post-operative care, and post-discharge. Medical Student perceptions of surgeons significantly improved on 5 of 21 items from pre- to post-clerkship (McNemar’s test, p<0.05) including whether surgeons are compassionate physicians (55% in agreement pre-clerkship to 74% post-clerkship, p<.0001) and respect medical students (22% in agreement pre-clerkship to 69% post-clerkship, p<.0001). None of the perceptions of surgery items significantly worsened pre- to post-clerkship.
Conclusion: Despite the majority of medical students reporting the opportunity to complete a range of discrete surgical tasks, a significant proportion did not report experiencing a positive OR learning environment or encountering positive surgical role modeling. Future work should understand this discrepancy and identify interventions that effectively improve the OR learning environment and surgical role modeling to ensure a positive surgical clerkship experience for all students.