At Home Preresidency Preparation for General Surgery Internship: A Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Surgical Skills Assessment

Background:

• Medical students entering surgical residency require foundational knowledge and technical skills.
• Traditional residency preparation often lacks standardized, accessible resources for early skill development.
• Objective assessment of surgical interns is crucial for evaluating training effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate an "at-home" preparatory curriculum for incoming surgical residents.
• To assess the impact of this novel adjunct on early performance in surgical residency.

Main Methods:

• A preparatory package with "how-to" videos, models, and instruments was mailed to 2015 surgical interns.
• The package targeted 5 key skill stations: arterial blood gas analysis, anatomy and imaging, knot tying, and suturing.
• Performance was retrospectively compared to 2014 historical controls using Student's t-test.

Main Results:

• The 2015 cohort (n=26) showed significantly higher overall scores than the 2014 cohort (n=32) (19.7 vs. 15.4, p = 0.04).
• A substantial increase in anatomy knowledge scores was observed (mean 5.0 vs. 1.9, p < 0.01).
• Technical skill station scores were comparable, but perfect scores increased in the intervention group (10 vs. 5).

Conclusions:

• A simple, home-based curriculum effectively improved medical students' performance on early surgical knowledge assessments.
• This preparatory adjunct demonstrates a viable method for enhancing readiness before surgical residency.
• Targeted pre-residency training can positively impact intern preparedness and early academic outcomes.