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Incoming residents' knot-tying and suturing skills: Are medical school boot camps sufficient?
Robert McMillan1, Philip N Redlich2, Robert Treat3
1Department of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Rd, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA.
Introduction:
Many medical schools offer M4 boot camps to improve students' preparedness for surgical residencies. For three consecutive years, we investigated the impact of medical school boot camps on intern knot-tying and suturing skills when measured at the start of residency.
Methods:
Forty-two interns completed questionnaires regarding their boot camp experiences. Their performance on knot-tying and suturing exercises was scored by three surgeons blinded to the questionnaire results. A comparison of these scores of interns with or without boot camp experiences was performed and statistical analysis applied.
Results:
26 of 42 (62%) interns reported boot camp training. There were no differences in scores between interns with or without a M4 boot camp experience for suturing [9.6(4.6) vs 9.8(4.1), p < 0.908], knot-tying [9.1(3.6) vs 8.4(4.1), p = 0.574], overall performance [2.0(0.6) vs 1.9(0.7), p = 0.424], and quality [2.0(0.6) vs 1.9(0.7), p = 0.665]) (mean(SD)).
Conclusions:
We could not demonstrate a statistically significant benefit in knot-tying and suturing skills of students who enrolled in M4 boot camp courses as measured at the start of surgical residency.
