Measuring medical students' experience with surgical problems and procedures

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Clinical Competency Assessment

Background:

• Assessing the breadth of medical students' surgical clerkship experiences is crucial for developing competent generalist clinicians.
• Ensuring adequate exposure to surgical problems and procedures is a key component of surgical training.
• Evaluating student learning experiences informs curriculum development and teaching strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a tool for measuring medical student exposure during surgical clerkships.
• To assess the adequacy of the breadth and depth of student experiences in surgical rotations.
• To identify areas for improvement in surgical education and training programs.

Main Methods:

• Development of a Surgical Clinical Checklist based on faculty input regarding essential surgical problems and procedures.
• Distribution of the checklist to 48 third-year medical students during their core surgery clerkship.
• Analysis of student-reported encounters with surgical problems and procedures, and levels of participation.

Main Results:

• Students reported encountering significantly more procedures (64.3%) than problems (21.9%) by 80% of respondents.
• Active student participation was reported as frequently as passive observation.
• Similar numbers of checklist items were encountered across different teaching sites, though item distribution varied.

Conclusions:

• The Surgical Clinical Checklist is a valuable instrument for evaluating student experiences in surgical clerkships.
• The checklist can effectively measure the breadth of exposure to surgical problems and procedures.
• Findings can guide future teaching initiatives to enhance surgical education and ensure generalist clinician preparedness.