Cutting too deep? Assessing the impact of a shorter surgery clerkship on students' clinical skills and knowledge
Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 5, 2026
Utilizing a 3D Printed Laparoscopic Nissen Fundoplication Model to Shorten a Resident's Learning Curve
Published on: August 15, 2025
Navin D Bhatia1, Colleen C Gillespie1, Alexandra J Berger1
1Department of Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, 530 First Avenue, HCC 6H, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Background:
The aim of this study was to compare the performance of students completing an 8-week versus a 6-week surgery clerkship on an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) clinical science surgery examination.
Methods:
One hundred fifteen students from the 8-week clerkship and 99 from the 6-week clerkship were included. Performance on a summative OSCE was assessed using behaviorally anchored checklists. NBME exams were graded using the NBME's standard scaled scores. Results were compared using 2-tailed, independent-samples, unequal-variance t tests.
Results:
Mean OSCE scores for the 8-week and 6-week curricula were not statistically different. Mean NBME scores also did not statistically differ. Six-week students performed significantly better in the specific OSCE subdomains of blood pressure, orthostatic blood pressure, rectal exam, and fecal occult blood test.
Conclusions:
Overall OSCE and NBME exam performance did not differ between 8-week and 6-week surgery clerkship students.
