Simulated Operations: Enhancing Environmental Familiarity and Confidence for Medical Students

Entering the surgical environment for the first time can be extremely daunting for medical students. Unfamiliarity with the layout and staff of operating rooms can be overwhelming and impact on a student's ability to learn in that environment. Our aim was to develop a teaching session to provide students with environmental familiarity prior to them attending an operating theatre.

This study made use of high-fidelity mannequins, members of theatre staff and designing the simulation space to mirror that of an operating room. The students were involved in: Consenting the patient, anesthetic preassessment, team brief, surgical scrubbing, WHO time-out, anesthetic induction, preparing and draping the patient, operating, and WHO sign-out. Students were provided with short pre and post session questionnaires with questions based on the student's own confidence levels, and familiarity of the environment and personnel involved. The questions were rated on a numerical Likert scale 1 to 10. Data were analyzed using paired T-tests.

Students were more confident at scrubbing in after the session (M = 8.06, SD = 1.39) than before (M = 5.50, SD=1.41) p < 0.0001. They were more confident on the surgical safety checkpoints after the simulation (M = 7.56, SD = 1.71) pre-session (M = 2.81, SD = 1.47) p < 0.0001. Students were more confident in the roles of the different healthcare professionals, p < 0.0001 (M = 8.56, SD = 0.89) (Pre-session M = 4.81, SD = 2.10).Students felt more comfortable being in a theatre environment after the session (M = 7.44, SD = 1.93) than before the session (M = 4.56, SD = 2.19) p < 0.005.

Simulation is often used in medical education to teach new aspects of medicine and surgery and allow learners to apply their clinical knowledge in a safe environment. This study shows that simulation improves student confidence while also providing environmental familiarity. Simulation is uniquely placed to provide Environmental familiarity, which enables students to focus on learning by reducing anxiety. Providing a teaching session, such as this, early in a medical student's journey lays valuable groundwork for their future learning opportunities.