4.4 Interventions in Medical Education
Although only a limited number of articles were published describing the effects of simulation (19, 23), conferences/careers day (25), workshops (26), and modified curriculum amongst medical students and trainees (27), they all showed that these interventions provided a means of networking and developing surgical skills. Students and junior doctors were immersed in a surgical environment and this influenced their decisions on career choice to a certain extent. Seminars and mentors provide a more realistic view on workload and lifestyle, again striving to remove students from the shielded environment of medical school as mentioned previously (13, 31). These simulations are a form of exposure. Therefore, the ability to determine the optimal duration of the intervention and to track the results of surgical clerkships is vital in order to develop these programmes, as this will be the ultimate assessment of success.
Modifying existing anatomy curricula may not significantly affect the results during examination but it improved students’ opinions of surgeons (27) and may instill surgical interest amongst medical students at an earlier stage. Indeed, this may result in a more holistic environment in medical education where students are exposed to both medical and surgical environments from their first year which perhaps may lead to changing perceptions of surgery and ultimately a career in niche fields like CT surgery.
Incentives such as scholarship awards provide the required opportunities to get involved in CT surgery-related research and inevitably maintain interest in the field over long periods of time as students have the benefit of gaining a mentor, whilst working together (9).
There will be challenges in implementing such changes in current medical school curricula due to the difficulties in making any improvements from feedback obtained by a small class and identifying the feasibility of involving a larger number of students in workshops and simulations. This is reflected in the studies exploring these interventions as their sample sizes were small (n < 100). This could potentially be addressed by allowing students to rotate between the different surgical workshops throughout the year in small groups as they would in placement blocks. Incorporating surgical teaching in every clinical year in medical school may also allow for more opportunities in witnessing clinical cases such as CT surgery procedures and taking part in any organised surgical simulation or seminars regarding CT surgery.