Multi-Specialty Boot Camp: Enhancing Student Confidence in Residency Preparation

A "boot camp" or senior preparatory course can help to bridge the gap between knowledge and skills attained in required clerkships and residency expectations. An under-researched area is in interventions across specialties and with student confidence as the outcome.

A multi-specialty school-wide boot camp for 4th year medical students was evaluated with a curriculum that focused on specialty milestones and entrustable professional activities and the importance of student confidence as an outcome.

A school-wide "boot camp" was developed to help 4th year students become ready for their matched specialty. Faculty resources were pooled to teach students from multiple specialties' common milestone topics. Surveys were collected from 3 academic years (2014-2015 to 2016-2017): pre-boot camp (Pre), immediately post-boot camp (Post 1), and 3 months after starting residency (Post 2). Dependent t-tests were employed to determine pre-post differences.

Over the 3-year study period, 185 students participated in boot camp, 162 (87.6%) completed the first 2 surveys, and 75 (40.5%) students provided data at all 3 points in time. With more robust findings between Pre and Post 1, students improved their confidence level in communicating with families and most specialty skills, and students felt more prepared to be an intern as a result of the boot camp.

The robust increase in student confidence suggested that a multi-specialty, school-wide approach to a capstone curriculum should be considered by medical schools, which will not only benefit students but faculty as well. Future research should examine student competence in achieving specialty skills.