Medical students and surgical education: a resident's perspective

Our current system of surgical education can be traced directly to the program developed by Halsted near the turn of the century. Modern medical education also can trace its roots to the early 20th century, when the "Flexner Report" radically changed the way doctors were trained in America. Today, multiple modalities can be used in resident and student education: case/problem-based learning, patient-based learning, traditional didactic lectures and standardized patients. As residents, we are charged with the daunting tasks of not only learning the art of surgery ourselves, but teaching medical students. Surgical residents have a unique opportunity to make an impression on medical students that can last a lifetime. For the vast majority of students, their junior year surgical clerkships will be their only exposures to surgical principles. It is the resident's responsibility to maximize this limited time; hopefully he'll make it the most enjoyable rotation of the student's third year.