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A Novel Surgical Skills Training Program for Medical Students
Miriam Henry M.D., Paul Sauer M.D., Betsy Fink B.S., Daniel Davenport PhD., James Liau M.D. F.A.C.S, Nadia Toma M.D, Debra A. Bourne M.D.
University of Kentucky
2022-01-31
Presenter: Dr. Miriam Henry (pending other abstract evaluations since only one presentation per person) or Dr.
Affidavit:
I approve. Resident contributed greatly to this project.
Director Name: Lesley Wong
Author Category: Resident Plastic Surgery
Presentation Category: Clinical
Abstract Category: General Reconstruction
Surgical skills are fundamental to medical school education, however there is no consensus regarding the optimal training program. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of a novel surgical skills training curriculum designed for medical students during their plastic surgery rotation.
This is an IRB-approved prospective cohort study. All medical students rotating on plastic surgery were given the opportunity to enroll. The curriculum included instructional videos, in-person instruction, and materials to practice at home. Students underwent standardized evaluation of eight basic surgical skills at the start of the rotation and again after completion four weeks later.
Twenty-one students were enrolled. Average age of participants was 26 years, all were third year medical students. There was a significant improvement in all eight surgical skills from baseline to completion of the training program, including needle driver palming (p>0.001), 2-hand tying (p=0.012), 1-hand tying (p<0.001), knot cutting (p=0.013), simple interrupted p<0.001), horizontal mattress (p<0.001), vertical mattress (p<0.001), and simple running (p<0.001) (Table 1).
There was no significant correlation between score improvement and gender, age, or number of prior surgical rotations.
This pilot study demonstrates the effectiveness of a novel multimodal surgical skills training curriculum in objectively improving medical student technical skills. Comparison to a control group and retention are areas of future exploration.
Table 1
Pre- to Post-Training Change
Task number and description Task Time # Errors Score Δ Score Improvement
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD p-Value
1: Palm Needle Driver 32 13.4 2 2.0 10 19.4 18 16.4 <.001
2: 2-Hand tying 35 14.8 1 1.2 17 25.3 14 22.9 .012
3: 1- Hand tying 42 17.9 2 1.2 0 27.7 19 22.1 <.001
4: Knot Cutting 6 4.0 0 .5 5 7.0 5 7.6 .013
5: Simple interrupted 67 26.4 1 .9 43 28.4 27 22.1 <.001
6: Interrupted horizontal 103 21.3 2 1.2 0 25.0 44 28.5 <.001
7: Interrupted vertical 106 18.0 2 1.5 -9 28.6 42 30.1 <.001
8: Simple running 366 147.5 4 2.7 199 146.8 115 105.2 <.001
