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Who should teach medical students surgery?
L A Neumayer1, A K Sachdeva, J C Hebert
1Salt Lake City VAMC and University of Utah, 84148, USA.
American Journal of Surgery
|March 1, 1997
Summary
Medical school curricula are changing, with surgery clerkships shortening while family practice clerkships lengthen. Most directors believe surgery clerkships should focus on training generalist physicians.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Surgical Training
- Curriculum Reform
Background:
- Medical schools are reforming curricula to boost generalist careers.
- Reforms often shorten surgery clerkships, limiting generalist-relevant experiences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify curriculum changes in surgery and family practice clerkships.
- To assess attitudes regarding the purpose of surgery clerkships.
Main Methods:
- Survey of 129 US medical school clerkship directors.
- Assessed curriculum changes over a 5-year period (1989-1994).
Main Results:
- Surgery clerkships decreased from 11 to 10.2 weeks (P <0.05).
- Family practice clerkships increased from 4.2 to 6.8 weeks (P <0.05).
- 91% of directors favored training generalists as the primary goal.
Conclusions:
- Surgery clerkship lengths have decreased at some institutions.
- Surgeons must engage in curriculum reform to emphasize their generalist training role.