Enhancing the Formal Preclinical Curriculum to Improve Medical Student Perception of Surgery

Background: This study aims to determine the effect of formal, preclinical curricular interventions on medical students' perceptions of surgeons, surgical learning objectives, and concerns regarding the surgical clerkship.

Methods: Thirty-eight medical students underwent a newly required, formal introduction to surgery during the preclinical curriculum. Two months later, these students were given surveys regarding their perception of surgery before and after a bootcamp-style transitions to the wards workshop that immediately preceded their core clinical rotations. Student responses were compared to historical peers.

Results: Thirty-seven students participated in the study (97.4%). Relative to historical peers, students demonstrated improved overall perception of surgery (71.2 vs 66.6, p = 0.046). A smaller proportion of students indicated that they were worried about evaluation (18.9% in 2018 vs 55.3% in 2017, p = 0.001) and interactions with surgical educators (18.9% vs 50%, p = 0.005). Students' overall perception of surgery significantly improved after participation in the transition to the wards workshop (71.2 to 77.8, p ≤ 0.0001), as did student agreement with 9 of 21 specific items. Improvement in surgical perception across the bootcamp-style workshop was similar to that of a prior workshop (8.6 in 2018 vs 6.4 in 2017, p = 0.21).

Conclusions: A preclinical introduction to surgery can have a positive impact on medical student perception of surgery prior to entry to the wards and may mitigate student fears regarding their surgical rotation.