A Hands-On Surgical Event to Improve Medical Student Operating Room Confidence.

The negative perceptions and lack of exposure to surgery and the operating room (OR) have been known to divert students away from surgical specialties. This study describes the impact of a surgical subspecialty exposure event (OR Essentials), combined with surgical faculty and M4 mentorship on preclinical medical students' confidence at an academic medical center. OR essentials event teaches surgical skills to preclinical medical students through hands-on skill-based workshops in a simulated OR setting. Pre and postevaluations were administered to measure program impact. One hundred four preclinical medical students participated. Following OR essentials, students reported a significant increase in confidence in the OR (P < 0.0001) and in basic surgical skills (P < 0.0001). Early surgical exposure events like OR essentials provide opportunities to improve medical student confidence in the OR, which will hopefully support recruitment of future surgeons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]