The role of a basic surgical skills laboratory as viewed by medical students (6th year)

In the last academic year, a training period in a surgical skills laboratory, using plastic models, was included as a part of the 'Cirurgia 3' ('Surgery 3', 6th year) programme of Faculdade Medicina Lisboa. To evaluate the training period, a structured, anonymous questionnaire was administered at the end, seeking students' responses on their satisfaction in attending the course. A global view of the answers points out students' favourable opinion of the laboratory-training period: concerning students' perceived goals for attending the course, a high degree of satisfaction was reported (globally 73% of computed scores were rated as 'good' or 'very good'); the teaching/learning environment and the delivered content got 90% 'very good' and 'good' ratings; teaching staff performance got the highest percentage of rating scores 'very good' and 'good' (95%). These ratings were dependent on variables that are unlikely to be a reflection only of glamour and seduction (clear explanations and clear demonstration of each component of the skill) and were less dependent on other variables such as 'enthusiasm for teaching' and 'relationship with students', which could be expected to be influenced by the charisma of the tutors. Helping students learn and train in surgical skills in a laboratory is challenging and our results affirm that the environment and the content were valuable for the understanding of the subject, while sessions planning and appropriate teaching technique are essential when practical skills are to be taught and learned.