MedSurg: A Reciprocal Resident-Led Lecture Series for Medicine and Surgery Residents

Collaboration between medical and surgical teams is integral to quality patient care. To bolster working relationships, a resident-led exchange curriculum was created for internal medicine (IM) residents on common surgical problems and for surgery residents on common medicine problems.

IM and surgical residents at a single academic institution were surveyed regarding their confidence managing and consulting on the other specialty's common problems. The findings prompted the development of a resident-led didactic curriculum. IM residents were given yearly lectures between 2023 and 2024. Surgery residents were given lectures in 2025. Residents filled out self-efficacy surveys before and after the lectures. Likert responses were analyzed dichotomously. Statistical significance (P < 0.05) between prelecture and postlecture responses was calculated using a two-tailed z-score for two population proportions. A Benjamini-Hochberg test was performed for post hoc P value correction.

IM residents' understanding of the surgical team's management increased by 14.6% (P < 0.05). Their confidence predicting surgical management increased by 27.4% (P < 0.01). Surgical residents' confidence managing medical conditions and requesting consultation did not change significantly. Overall, 75% of IM residents and 63% of surgery residents said that these lectures improved their confidence requesting consults and changed their patient management. One hundred percent reported improved understanding of the other specialty's approach to problems.

A resident-led didactic curriculum may improve training on co-management of patients for IM and surgery residents. Surveys demonstrate significantly increased IM resident confidence predicting and understanding surgical management. The next steps are expanding the curriculum and exploring the differing results between IM and surgery residents.