Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Dec 28;17(1):265.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-017-1106-x.

A one-day surgical-skill training course for medical students' improved surgical skills and increased interest in surgery as a career

Ho Seok Seo  1 , Yong Hwa Eom  1 , Min Ki Kim  1 , Young-Min Kim  2   3 , Byung Joo Song  1 , Kyo Young Song  4
Affiliations

A one-day surgical-skill training course for medical students' improved surgical skills and increased interest in surgery as a career

Ho Seok Seo et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Despite many high-quality programs in basic surgical-skill education, the surgical skill of junior doctors varies widely. This, together with the waning interest in surgery as a career among medical students, is a serious issue confronted by hospitals and healthcare systems worldwide. We, therefore, developed and implemented an intensive one-day surgical-skill training course for two purposes; it would improve surgical skills and increase interest in surgery among medical students.

Methods: The surgical-skill training program is named Surgical Skill Weekend (SSW) and it includes hands-on training sessions for surgical-suturing techniques and advanced surgical procedures (i.e. laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgery), hybrid simulation sessions, and an operating-room session where aforementioned sessions are all put together. By the end of the program, students' improvements in surgical-suturing skills were assessed by experts in a form of checklist, and changes in the interest in a surgical career, if there were any, were answered by the students who participated in the program.

Results: A total of ninety-one (91) medical students participated in the 2015 and 2016 SSW courses. Their overall satisfaction level with the course was very high (Very satisfied: 78%, Quite satisfied: 22%). All of the participant's surgical-suturing skills significantly improved (median score range: 14-20, P < 0.05) and their interest in a surgical career increased significantly (from 56% to 81%, P < 0.05) by completing the program.

Conclusions: An intensive and comprehensive surgical-skill training program for medical students can not only improve surgical-suturing skills but also increase interest in surgery as a career.

Keywords: Intensive training; Medical students; Surgical skill.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Ethics Committee of the College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea (KC16QISI0775).

Written consent was obtained from the participants.

Data was collected and processed anonymously and decline of participation was possible anytime without any consequences.

Consent for publication

Written consent from the participants were obtained.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Four sessions of program: a Basic surgical technique session b Hybrid simulation session c Laparoscopic or robot-assisted surgery session d Putting-it-all-together operating-room session
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Trend of the rate of application to surgery over the last decade in eight institutions of the Catholic University of Korea
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Hamdorf JM, Hall JC. Acquiring surgical skills. Br J Surg. 2000;87:28–37. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2168.2000.01327.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Velmahos GC, Toutouzas KG, Sillin LF, Chan L, Clark RE, Theodorou D, Maupin F. Cognitive task analysis for teaching technical skills in an inanimate surgical skills laboratory. Am J Surg. 2004;187:114–119. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2002.12.005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Martin JA, Regehr G, Reznick R, MacRae H, Murnaghan J, Hutchison C, Brown M. Objective structured assessment of technical skill (OSATS) for surgical residents. Br J Surg. 1997;84:273–278. doi: 10.1002/bjs.1800840237. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kim KS. Introduction and administration of the clinical skill test of the medical licensing examination, republic of Korea (2009) J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2010;7:4. doi: 10.3352/jeehp.2010.7.4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. von Websky MW, Oberkofler CE, Rufibach K, Raptis DA, Lehmann K, Hahnloser D, Clavien PA. Trainee satisfaction in surgery residency programs: modern management tools ensure trainee motivation and success. Surgery. 2012;152:794–801. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2011.07.037. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources