Educational Impact of a Pre-clinical Anesthesiology Elective

Anesthesiology is often underrepresented in pre-clinical curricula, leaving many students without structured exposure before clinical rotations. This study evaluated an eight-week pre-clinical anesthesiology elective at Baylor College of Medicine, in which first-year medical students voluntarily attended weekly lectures from anesthesiology faculty across four affiliated hospitals covering anesthetic history, modern anesthetic delivery, regional and obstetric anesthesia, and ethics. Anonymous pre- and post-course surveys (13 items, 1-10 scale) assessed specialty interest and self-reported understanding; only the 12 students completing both surveys were included in the analysis, performed via paired t-tests. Self-reported understanding improved significantly across all knowledge domains, including history of anesthesia, early anesthetic techniques, ether/nitrous oxide use, wartime anesthesia, modern techniques and pharmaceuticals, regional/local anesthesia, obstetric anesthesia, and ethical issues (all p < 0.05, most p < 0.001), with the largest gains observed in comfort discussing anesthesiology content and clinically relevant techniques. Interest in anesthesiology, surgical specialties, and non-surgical specialties did not change significantly, likely reflecting high baseline interest among self-selected, voluntary participants. These preliminary findings suggest that even brief pre-clinical exposure to anesthesiology may improve self-perceived understanding and confidence independent of shifts in specialty interest. Given the small sample and reliance on self-reported outcomes, larger studies are needed to confirm these findings.