Undergraduate deficits in plastic surgery exposure and awareness of the specialty: a systematic review

Plastic surgery is an important specialty that involves widespread medical knowledge, some of which is taught in undergraduate curricula. The General Medical Council provides a well-defined plastic surgery curriculum for postgraduate training. However, there is no consensus on the provision for undergraduates in this specialty, potentially giving rise to a deficit in undergraduate medical education and a suboptimal basis for plastic surgery postgraduate training. Our aim was to identify the gap in undergraduate plastic surgery teaching and to understand student perceptions of the specialty as well as any trialled interventions.

A prospectively registered systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. The MEDLINE^®, Embase™, PubMed^® and Google Scholar™ databases were searched for literature relating to undergraduate exposure to plastic surgery and relevant teaching interventions. Ten studies were included in this review, categorised into three main themes: exposure during medical school, determining factors and perceptions for pursuing a plastic surgery career, and teaching interventions.

Surveys assessing medical student perceptions indicate a significant deficit in exposure to plastic surgery in the undergraduate curriculum. Medical students' interest in the specialty is affected by multiple factors, including the amount of surgical exposure in medical school. Interventions to address the deficit mostly involve one-day courses.

Although the literature is currently limited, studies are needed to effectively assess the outcomes of plastic surgery teaching methods in undergraduate training. Moreover, there is a need for consensus around the provision of undergraduate teaching in plastic surgery. This should be reflected in the latest undergraduate curricula in medical education.