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Background: The Society of Black Academic Surgeons (SBAS) sought to understand who constitutes its membership and obtain feedback to improve the organization., Methods: SBAS conducted a 25-question survey amongst members., Results: The response rate was 19 ​% (n ​= ​132/685) with an even gender breakdown (male n ​= ​64, female n ​= ​68). The majority identified as Black or African American (85 ​%), followed by White (12 ​%). Fifty-two percent identified as trainees, while the rest were practicing surgeons specializing in burn/trauma/critical care (19 ​%), oncology (19 ​%), and general surgery (13 ​%). Half joined SBAS within the last 3 years. Satisfaction was reported at a mean of 3.7/5. Lack of awareness (41 ​%), time (13 ​%), or interest (5 ​%) limited committee participation. Networking (83 ​%), mentorship/sponsorship/allyship (71 ​%), and leadership development (46 ​%) were most valued benefits with job boards, webinars, and grants least valuable., Conclusion: SBAS is a unique organization uniting both new and lifetime members and opportunities exist to enhance current membership and improve participation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Shay Behrens, Andre R. Campbell, Colin Martin, and Michael A. Edwards have no relevant financial disclosures., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: This study describes perceived knowledge gaps of third-year medical students after participating in a virtual surgical didactic rotation (EMLR) and shortened in-person surgery rotation during the COVID-19 Pandemic., Methods: Open-ended and Likert questions were administered at the end of the virtual rotation and inperson-surgical rotation to medical students. Three blinded coders identified themes by semantic analysis., Results: 82 students (51% of all MS3s) participated in the EMLR. Semantic analysis revealed gaps in perioperative management (Post-EMLR:18.4%, Post-Inpatient:26.5%), anatomy (Post-EMLR:8.2%, PostInpatient:26.5%). and surgical skills (Post-EMLR: 43.0%, Post-Inpatient: 44.1%). Students also described gaps related to OR etiquette (Post-EMLR: 12.2%, Post-Inpatient: 8.8%) and team dynamics/the hidden curriculum (Post- Inpatient:26.6%). There was a significant improvement in perceived confidence to perform inpatient tasks after completing the inpatient clinical experience (p ≤ 0.01)., Conclusion: Virtual interactive didactics for cognitive skills development cannot replace a full clinical surgical experience for third-year medical students. Future curricula should address perceived gaps., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Surgical intensive care units (SICU) require complex care from a multi-disciplinary team. Frequent changes in team members can lead to shifting expectations for junior general surgical trainees, which creates a challenging working and learning environment. We aim to identify expectations of junior surgery trainee's medical knowledge and technical/non-technical skills at the start of their SICU rotation. We hypothesize that expectations will not be consistent across SICU stakeholder groups., Methods: Twenty-eight individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with six SICU stakeholder groups at a medium-sized academic hospital. Expectations were identified from interview transcripts. Frequency counts were analyzed., Results: Forty-one expectations were identified. 4 expectations were identified by a majority of interviewees. Most expectations were identified by 7 or fewer interviewees. 23 (53%) expectations were shared by at least one stakeholder group. 2 (8%) expectations were shared by all groups., Conclusions: SICU stakeholder groups identified ten medical knowledge, ten technical skill, and three non-technical skill expectations. Yet, few expectations were shared among the groups. Thus, SICU stakeholder groups have disparate expectations for surgery trainees in our SICU., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no personal or financial conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Simulation can enhance learning effectiveness, efficiency, and patient safety and is engaging for learners., Methods: A survey was conducted of surgical clerkship directors nationally and medical students at 5 medical schools to rank and stratify simulation-based educational topics. Students applying to surgery were compared with others using Wilcoxon's rank-sum tests., Results: Seventy-three of 163 clerkship directors (45%) and 231 of 872 students (26.5%) completed the survey. Of students, 28.6% were applying for surgical residency training. Clerkship directors and students generally agreed on the importance and timing of specific educational topics. Clerkship directors tended to rank basic skills, such as examination skills, higher than medical students. Students ranked procedural skills, such as lumbar puncture, more highly than clerkship directors., Conclusions: Surgery clerkship directors and 4th-year medical students agree substantially about the content of a simulation-based curriculum, although 4th-year medical students recommended that some topics be taught earlier than the clerkship directors recommended. Students planning to apply to surgical residencies did not differ significantly in their scoring from students pursuing nonsurgical specialties., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)