The usefulness of the surgical knowledge and skills acquired via the university curriculum for doctors' medical practice several years after graduation

Surgical Skills Workshops Should Be a Part of the United Kingdom Undergraduate Medical Curriculum

Introduction: Medical students across the United Kingdom (UK) report poor satisfaction with surgical teaching. The Surgical Skills Day (SSD) begins to address this by exposing medical students to surgery through an easily accessible one-day practical workshop. This study shows how the SSD encourages undergraduate engagement in surgery.

Method: Feedback forms were emailed to attendees of the SSD and their anonymised responses were used to evaluate the SSD.

Results: A total of 144 students attended the SSD across three years and the feedback response rate was 74% (n = 107). Key findings were that 100% of respondents (n = 107) would like the SSD to be an annual event, 79% (n = 83) were more inclined to pursue a surgical career following the event, and 97% (n = 103) would like to see practical surgical skills incorporated into the curriculum. The SSD was able to engage undergraduates with surgery through mentorship, practical skills, specialty exposure, and teaching of the General Medical Council (GMC) mandated skills.

Conclusions: Undergraduate surgical teaching in the UK is insufficient. The student-led annual SSD showed improved engagement in practical surgical skills and increased enthusiasm for a surgical career. In light of this, the authors feel the SSD or similar event should be integrated into the UK medical school curriculum.

Has the Bachelor of Surgery Left Medical School?-A National Undergraduate Assessment

INTRODUCTION

Nearly all trainee doctors would undertake a surgical placement in their clinical training; however, there is anecdotal evidence of variability in undergraduate surgical teaching across the UK. We set out to describe the provision of undergraduate surgery and report graduating students' opinions of aspects of this.

METHODS

We undertook a cross-sectional questionnaire of medical students graduating in 2014 from UK medical schools. An online electronic questionnaire was used to capture demographics, career intentions, and individual's undergraduate experience of surgery. A separate questionnaire was sent to medical schools to assess time devoted to surgical placements and how surgical sciences were taught and assessed.

RESULTS

From 483 responses covering 31 UK medical schools, there were 328 completed student questionnaires. A third of respondents felt that teaching of surgical sciences was inadequate. Medical schools reported time allocated to surgical specialties ranging from 4 to 21 weeks (median 13 weeks). Among all, 1 medical school offered a basic surgical skills course and 1 medical school specifically assessed surgical-related skills. Overall, 65% of medical students felt prepared for a surgical foundation placement and 88% felt prepared for a medical foundation placement. In total, 78% felt ready to participate in an acute medicine on-call and 48% felt ready for emergency surgery on-call. There was a positive association between time dedicated to undergraduate surgery and reported preparedness for a foundation surgical job.

CONCLUSIONS

UK medical students reported uniformly low rates of satisfaction with surgical science teaching. Students studying at medical schools with more time in the curriculum dedicated to surgery reported higher levels of preparedness for surgical foundation jobs. There were differences in the rates of perceived preparedness for surgical posts and for emergency surgery. There is a clear need to review undergraduate surgical provision to ensure that students are equipped for safe practice in junior surgical foundation jobs.