425 Getting Everyone Up to Speed: A Single Institution Pilot of a Neurosurgery Sub-internship Bootcamp

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: At many institutions, first and second year medical students gain exposure to neurosurgery primarily through shadowing and research projects. Opportunities to acquire clinical experience and technical skills before a neurosurgery sub-internship are often limited. Consequently, students starting sub-internships have wide variability of clinical knowledge and experience. METHODS: We implemented a one-day boot camp at our university. The morning session followed a didactic format covering 14 topics. The afternoon session utilized hands-on stations: navigation-based EVD simulation, burr hole drilling, pinning, spine laminectomy/instrumentation, and OR orientation. Participants completed a pre-test and post-test survey using a 9-point Likert scale (Strongly Disagree [1] to Strongly Agree [9]). RESULTS: Ten medical students participated in the pilot. All participants rated the boot camp positively (Average score of 9.9 ± 0.2 out of 10). Students identified key areas they felt least comfortable with via the pre-test: functional neurosurgery (2.6 ± 1.4), management of neurosurgical floor patients (3.0 ± 1.6), and examination of comatose patients (4.1 ± 2.3). At the end of the event, students expressed statistically significant increased comfort across 16 of the 17 metrics; maximal improvement was noted in brain tumor imaging interpretation (5.9 ± 1.1 vs. 2.9 ± 1.9, p < .001) and knowing what is expected of a sub-intern (7.0 ± 1.1 vs. 4.0 ± 1.6, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: We successfully implemented a one-day boot camp for medical students about to start their sub-internships. Moving forward, we plan to expand the hands-on learning to other medical students in the region and provide the didactic sessions virtually to allow participation on a national scale. In doing so, we hope to increase sub-internship readiness and reduce barriers for all students interested in neurosurgery.