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Introduction: Pre-clerkship procedural skills training is not yet a standard across Canadian medical school curricula, resulting in limited exposure to procedures upon entering clerkship. While simulated skills training has been documented in the literature to improve performance in technical ability, anxiety and confidence have yet to be investigated despite their documented impact on performance and learning. This study therefore aims to evaluate the effect of pre-clerkship procedural skills training on medical student anxiety and confidence., Methods: A procedural skills training program was designed based on an evidence-based near-peer, flipped classroom model of education. Ninety-two second-year medical students volunteered for the study. Fifty-six were randomized to the training group, and 36 were randomized to the control group. Students in the training group attended seven procedural skills tutorials over seven months. The control group represented the average medical school student without standardized procedural training. Student anxiety and confidence were assessed at the beginning and end of the program using the State Trait Anxiety Inventory and Confidence Questionnaires., Results: Students who participated in the procedural skills program demonstrated greater reductions in their state anxiety and greater improvements in confidence compared to the control group., Conclusion: Longitudinal procedural skills training in the simulation setting has demonstrated improvements in anxiety and confidence among pre-clerkship medical students. These added benefits to training have the potential to ease medical students' transition into clerkship, while also contributing to a safer and more effective clinical experience. Therefore, future integration of standardized pre-clerkship procedural skills training within medical school curricula should be considered., Competing Interests: None, (© 2021 Battaglia, Ivankovic, Merlano, Patel, Sayed, Wang, McConnell, Rastogi; licensee Synergies Partners.)

Introduction: We conducted a national survey to characterize current Canadian procedural skills training in Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME). The goals were to identify the most important procedures students should know upon graduation and assess clinician-educator perceptions regarding implementation of a pre-clerkship procedural program., Methods: We distributed the survey to physician-educators across Canada's 17 medical schools. Respondents were directed to an individualized survey that collected demographic data, physician-educator responses on essential procedural skills, as well as physician-educator opinions on the value of a pre-clerkship procedural training program., Results: The response rate for this survey was 21% (42 out of 201 distributed surveys were completed). The top 10 most important procedures identified by physician-educators included IV Access, Airway Management, Local anesthesia/field block, Casting, Spontaneous Vaginal Delivery, Testing for STIs, Phlebotomy, Suturing of Lacerations, Nasogastric Tube Insertion, and Venipuncture. Physician-educators supported a pre-clerkship procedural program., Conclusions: Identifying the most crucial procedural skills is the first step in implementing a competency-based procedural skills training program for Canadian medical students. With the list of essential skills, and the support for physician-educators in developing a pre-clerkship procedural skills curriculum, hopefully there can be future development of formalized curricula., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest: The authors state that they have no conflicts of interest to declare at this time., (© 2020 Battaglia, Sayed, Merlano, McConnell, Ramnanan, Rowe, Wang, Patel, Rastogi; licensee Synergies Partners.)